October 27

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1833 Priscilla Hannah Peckover born Wisbech, England (d. 1931). Quaker; absolute pacifist; pioneering British peace leader; founder of Women's Local Peace Association, 1879; founder of annual Peace Sunday. Learned 16 languages to communicate peace.

  • 1917 Anna Langford born Springfield, OH (d. 2008). Civil rights lawyer; marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.; first woman on Chicago city council, 1971-91.

  • 1922 Selma Brackman born Far Rockaway, NY (d. 2010). Organized Peace Worker Women's Strike for Peace, 1968; organized the National Teach-In on World Community, Columbia University, 1969; director of the First International Exhibit for Peace, 1971; founded War & Peace Foundation, 1981.

  • 1922 Anna Aschenbach born Nanking, China (d. 2011). Tax resister; WILPF awardee; organizer; civil rights activist.

  • 1923 Ruby Dee born Cleveland, OH. Actress; protested Vietnam War, nuclear tests, Iraq War; arrested for protest against police killing of Amadou Diallo by NYPD, 1999.

  • 1931 Nawal El Saadawi born Kafr Tahla, Egypt. Psychiatrist; physician; novelist; leading feminist. UN adviser on women, 1979; imprisoned 1981, exiled 1988; led women's peace delegation to stop Gulf War, 1991; awarded North-South Prize, 2004.

  • 1940 Maxine Hong Kingston born Stockton, CA. Author; peace activist. Arrested for White House antiwar protest, 2003.

  • 1943 Karen Klimczak (d. 2006). Founded Buffalo Center for Nonviolence; murdered 2006.

  • 1950 Lia Diskin (aka Leonor Beatriz Diskin Pawlowicz) born Buenos Aires, Argentina. Gandhian disciple and professor. Created Gandhi Network; began Gandhi Day Sao Paulo, 1982. Founded Palas Athena Association for a culture of peace, 1972. Received Jamnalal Bajaj Gandhi Award, 2010.

  • 1950 Rosalind Marsden. British diplomat; ambassador to Afghanistan, 2003; ambassador to Iraq, 2006; first female representative of European Community to Sudan, 2010.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 2002 Three thousand Senegalese women marched for peace, Zinguinchor.

  • 2005 10th International Forum of Association of Women's Rights in Development (AWID), Bangkok.

  • 2010 Topless Ukrainian university students FEMEN protested Vladimir Putin's visit to Kiev.

  • 2011 10 women peacemakers spoke on UN panel on conflict prevention and peacebuilding.