"In the Past I Never Dared Open My Mouth"

The revolution demands from women a committment other than that of childrearing and by offering, as an alternative to domestic confinement, tough and productive activity. Women's organisations have been set up to assist the Front and encourage discussions of, among other things aspects of women's oppression.

Thus traditional barriers are breaking down. One woman told Trish Johnson, a British correspondent in a Sudanese refugee camp of how her husband's consciousness was raised through this political education; "In the past I never dared open my mouth about anything in front of my husband, he would have thrown me out of the house. Now we argue all the time about politics."

Proud though they are of their achievements, Eritrean women recognise that they still have a long way to go. Attitudes of male supremacy are deeply embedded in the society.

But enemy bullets do not discriminate between men and women, and in the confrontation with Soviet-Ethiopian aggression Eritrean women's subordination is being undermined. The EPLF, while fighting for freedom for the Eritrean masses, is also waging a persistent assault on the causes of women's oppression, believing that the emancipation of Eritrean women can only be achieved when feudalism and capitalism are destroyed and a people's democratic government established.

Virginia Adams