The mom of 6 likewise offered a speech throughout the 2nd International Conference on Action with Women and Peace in Seoul in November.
“The truth is a woman’s life does not rank equally with a man’s far more universally than we are willing to acknowledge,” Jolie stated. “Conflict-related sexual violence is a manifestation of this reality. It seems we believe in rights for women and girls only to a point. In our daily lives, to the point that it might force us to see something we don’t wish to see and have to act upon it. In politics, to the point that it doesn’t compete with vested interests. In our foreign policy, to the point that it doesn’t conflict with business and trade. At the security council, to the point that a P5 member chooses to cast a veto to shield an ally no matter how bloody their hands. And in settling conflicts, the rights of women and girls matter to the point that we can declare success and move on.”
She then included, “It is this caring to a point that means that gender equality is still at least a century away, that domestic violence has grown sharply worse during the pandemic and that the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution—over half of them women and children—has doubled in a decade.”
