PREAMBLE
The Oromo people have been suffering from inhuman treatment and injustice under alien rule for over a century. The Oromo women being part of the Oromo society have suffered injustices including oppressions relating to their gender which have deep cultural roots in traditional societies, and therefore it is urgent that the Oromo women get organized to improve their status and become self-reliant.
The human right abuse perpetrated against the Oromo people in general have been exacerbated in recent times. Due to persecution and loss of political, economic, social and cultural rights in Ethiopia, the number of the Oromo displaced inside Oromia and Oromo refugees in Africa, Europe and North America has been on the rise.Women and children make the majority of Oromo refugees; therefore there is a need for Oromo women in Diaspora to get organized in order to preserve their heritage, maintain their language, social, culture and strengthen their ties with their country of origin, Oromia, and support the struggle of Oromo women everywhere.
The primary goal of International Oromo Women's Organization is to empower Oromo women and socially engage them not only to the improvement of one-self but also to that of all Oromo women everywhere. It is necessary to mobilize resources, ability and knowledge to emancipate Oromo women from all forms of oppression, marginalization and discrimination.The Oromo women's emancipation and the achievement of gender equality are inseparable from the overall realization of the Oromo nation's natural right to freedom. To achieve these multiple objectives, the Oromo women in Diaspora should organize to promote their common causes. It is with these objectives that the International Oromo Women's Organization is established in June 2007 in Washington, DC, United State of America.
OROMO PEOPLE
People: Oromo, Language: Afaan Oromo (Oromo Language) Country: Oromia at horn of Africa, mostly central and largest part of Ethiopia.Oromo were colonized by Abyssinia with the help of European firearms. "With equal arms, the Abyssinians will never reconquer an inch of land. With the power of firearms imported from Europe, Menlik began a murderous revenge, about 1870, which ended only in 1898, by the submission of Borana."
AN ANCIENT PEOPLE GREAT AFRICAN NATION THE OROMO:From the book Written by Father Martial De Salviac 1901 and translated to English Language by Ayalew Kanno. Page 8.
The Oromo people are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia. Out of which Women constitute fifty percent (50%) of the Oromo population.Source:-Ethiopian Central Statistics, 2007.
Oromo Women live under triple oppression by successive Abyssinian rule: Due to their ethnicity as Oromo equally oppressed with Oromo people, due to their gender harassed by Abyssinian militia and as well as due to cultural operation women even can not speak out what happened to them.