First perspective: Exchange guns for ballpoint pens in the Philippines

A veteran who fought for the rights of people on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines has told how she traded her combat clothes for jilbabs [outer garment]and her life in the woods for a more peaceful rural community.

Suraida ‘Sur’ Amil joined the Bangsamoro Muslim Women’s Brigade (BIWAB) at the age of 18 with the goal of gaining autonomy for the predominantly Muslim areas of Mindanao.

After an agreement was signed to end the insurgency and grant greater autonomy and self-governance to the Bangsamoro people, she participated in a mediation program sponsored by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. support violation (UNODC) to reintegrate and rehabilitate veterans.

Suraida ‘Sur’ Amil is now an advocate for community peace.

“From an early age, growing up in the Bangsamoro, I saw how difficult my parents’ life was. They faced various forms of discrimination and witnessed the brutality of the nine-year martial law that was declared in 1972 and deeply affected many communities across Mindanao. , including the Muslim community.

My parents had a difficult life, they lived in poverty and could not realize their dreams. This has affected my life and the lives of my 9 other siblings. I had hoped to become a teacher but I never was able to because I never finished school due to lack of financial support.

When I was eighteen years old, I realized I had to fight for the rights of the people, our right to self-determination, not only for my generation but also for future generations.

A friend of mine is a member of BIWAB and as soon as I heard about the organization’s goals, I thought about the suffering my parents went through and what I could do to improve the situation for my community. our copper.

If you ask me to choose war or peace, of course I will never choose war over peace, but we must fight for that peace.

Suraida ‘Amil joined the Bangsamoro Muslim Women’s Brigade (BIWAB) when she was 18 years old.

I spent time operating in the jungle as a warrior. It is a harsh environment living in the mountains with wild animals without the comforts of home.

But women are strong; they have the ability to be warriors as well as providers for their families.

A ballpoint pen is not a gun, a jilbab is not a military uniform

In 2014, the peace agreement for the Bangsamoro (Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, CAB) was signed and gradually we are turning ourselves into civilians. I traded my combat boots for lipstick, I carried a ballpoint pen to write instead of a gun to shoot, I wore a jilbab rather than a military uniform, and I left the jungle and returned to my community.

I became a peace facilitator and worked with people in my local area on issues such as gender-based violence and how to prevent violent extremism.

Islam teaches us to be kind to each other and not to harm others. We have a saying in Islam that if we save one life then we have saved humanity.

I appreciate and am proud of my role as an advocate for peace in my community.

As part of a panel discussion on modern forms of media that I participated in, I learned how to raise awareness and prevent violent extremism on social media.

I am currently living a peaceful life but my message to my little daughter has always been that she must always fight for her rights.

When you fight for a noble cause, it doesn’t matter whether you gain or lose something, because it’s the cause that really matters.”