January 25

/

Women peacemakers born today

  • 1882 Virginia Woolf born London, England (d. 1941). Author and essayist; dealt with feminist themes.

  • 1871 Maud Wood Park born Boston, MA (d. 1955). Suffragist; first president of League of Women Voters, 1920-24.

  • 1872 Marion Craig Wentworth born St. Paul, MN (d. 1942). Playwright and speaker.

  • 1892 Rachel Davis DuBois born Woodstown, NJ (d. 1993). Quaker; pioneer in intercultural relations. WILPF leader at Hague Conference, 1922. SCLC trainer.

  • 1916 Dagmar Wilson born New York, NY (d. 2011). Artist. Co-founded Women's Strike for Peace, organization that influenced Nuclear Test Ban and was one of first groups to oppose Vietnam War, 1961.

  • 1921 Macy Morse born Molalla, OR. Founded New Hampshire Womyn's Peace Network, 1983; founded Seacoast Peace Response, 2001. Opposed Vietnam War, AVCO and Iraq War; arrested for Seabrook protests.

  • 1939 Hattie Nestel born Philadelphia, PA. Antinuclear activist. Leader of Shut it Down Affinity Group of women protesting against Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant; arrested multiple times.

  • 1948 Nabeela al-Mulla born Kuwait. Kuwaiti ambassador. First Arab woman to serve as head delegate to UN. Chair of UN Atomic Energy board, promoting nuclear non-proliferation, 2002-03. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

  • 1952 Asma Khader born Az Zababida, Palestine (West Bank). Jordanian lawyer, human rights activist; co-founder, director Sisterhood is Global; Jordanian Minister of State 2003-5; UN Human Rights investigator for Libya civil war abuses; first protest 1965 age 13 against Israeli bombing Hebron.

  • 1955 Piedad Cordoba born Medellin, Colombia. Afro-Colombian; legislative representative, 1992-1994; senator, 1994-2010. Negotiated release of FARC prisoners, 2007; nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • Feast day of Blessed Beatrice of Ornacieu, sister and follower of nonviolent peacemaker St. Claire.

  • 1915 Broadway premiere of antiwar play “War Brides” at Keith Theater.

  • 1983 Six Greenham Women staged rooftop protest at Holloway Prison.

  • 1995 The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia began march from Nazran to Grozny, Chechnya.

  • 2003 Diane Wilson sentenced to 4 months prison and fined $2,000 for criminal trespass for climbing tower at Dow's Spindrift plant to protest Bhopal tragedy.

  • 2009 Code Pink mission to Gaza to assess damage of Israeli attacks and blockade.

  • 2010 Eve Tetaz given 75-day suspended sentence (25 days served) in DC Jail for her twenty-first antiwar protest. "I'm not disturbing the peace, I'm disturbing the war."

  • 2011 Egyptian Asmaa Mahfouz denounced Mubarak regime and encouraged public protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square, on this "Day of Rage."