Editing Shining Path (section)

==== Women in the Shining Path ====
The number of women involved in the armed struggle remained high throughout the war, participating at almost all logistical, military and strategic levels as militants, guerrilla commanders and top party leaders of the organisation. The high proportion of women was a given and desired from the outset; the success of the internal Peruvian revolution was explicitly made dependent on the participation of women. Up to forty per cent of the guerrillas were women, and there were countless "ladies of death" who led military commandos. In 1992, at least eight of the nineteen members of the Central Committee were women, including three of the five members of the Politburo, and in 1980 more than a third of the women arrested had a degree. In criminal proceedings against senderista in 1987, the majority were women. The Shining Path was the first guerrilla organisation to incorporate women on a completely equal military footing with its male members, actively recruiting women on a large scale and appointing them to leading positions.<ref>Nathaniel C. Nash: Shining Path Women: So Many and So Furios.. Lima Journal, Abschnitt A. The New York Times, New York. 22 September 1992.</ref>

The Movimiento Femenino Popular (MFP) group was officially formed in 1974 from the merger of two groups, the Centro Femenino Popular and the Frente Femenino Universitario. The "MFP Manifiesto" traces the origins of the group back to the mid-1960s, when female students and academics began to organise their own groups and factions in other student organisations and to reflect on revolution and "the thesis of the great Lenin on the participation of women and the success of a revolution" from 1968 onwards. During these years, more and more women were studying and trying to enter the labour market. The percentage of women at university in Ayacucho was particularly high: in 1968, 30% of students were women, mainly in the departments of obstetrics and social and educational services. The unequal access to work and education exacerbated the differences between classes and between rural and urban populations, especially within the female population. Women became increasingly involved and organised in various movements as an expression of their protest and frustration.<ref>Jaymie Patricia Heilman: "Family Ties: The Political Genealogy of Shining Path's Comrade Norah". ''Bulletin of Latin American Research'', Vol. 29. 1. April 2010, 155–169.</ref> So much so, that by the year 1990, women held eight of the nineteen Central Committee positions. This was more involvement from women than any of the other leftist movements in Peru. Women in Peru even acknowledge the Shining Path movement as a step-away from the male-dominated societies that are renowned in many parts of Latin America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Starn |first=Orin |date=1995 |title=Maoism in the Andes: The Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path and the Refusal of History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/158120 |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=399–421 |doi=10.1017/S0022216X00010804 |jstor=158120 |issn=0022-216X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This was far different than what has been seen before the [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Peru)|Peruvian Truth]] was revealed. Many women were joining the armed forces to obtain basic rights and securities. Despite many arrests and incarcerations of women, this time period revolutionized women's rights in Peru.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boutron |first1=Camille |last2=Constant |first2=Chloé |date=2013 |title=Gendering Transnational Criminality: The Case of Women's Imprisonment in Peru |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670827 |journal=Signs |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=177–195 |doi=10.1086/670827 |jstor=10.1086/670827 |issn=0097-9740|url-access=subscription }}</ref>