Farhana Yamin born Pakistan February 22, 1965. British international environmental lawyer and negotiator. Arrested for supergluing herself to Shell Building in Extinction Rebellion protest, London, 2019.
“The most important thing was to stand in solidarity with all of the people around the world who are seeing climate devastation, especially in developing countries.” (Democracy Now, Apr. 17, 2019; photo Daily Mail)
Amira Yahyaoui born Ksar Hadada, Tunisia August 6, 1985. Tunisian activist, blogger who promoted successful Arab Spring; parliamentary delegate responsible for peaceful transition; Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention 2014.
“We cannot talk about the revolution in the past, It has not finished yet.” (techpresident.com, Oct. 22, 2014; photo Wikipedia)
Salma Yaqoob born Bradford, England August 15, 1971. Led Birmingam Stop the War Coalition 2003; psychotherapist; leading British Muslim woman; founded anti-war Respect Party 2004.
“I was thinking: How is bombing Afghanistan going to achieve peace, or a resolution of what happened on ‘9/11’? It seemed obvious to me that it was going to make things worse, not better. And then that [injunction] ‘Stand up for justice’ —what does that mean, then? What is my responsibility? . . . for me it comes down to just a few basic things. There’s a verse in the Qur’an—surah 4, verse 135—which says: ‘Stand up for justice even if it goes against yourself or your parents or your kin, rich or poor.’ And that applies even at home. When the kids are fighting, it’s like: Just be honest! Stand up for justice even if it goes against yourself.” (High Profiles, July 21, 2016; photo theguardian.com)
Alla Yaroshinskaya born Zhytomyr, Ukraine February 14, 1953. Ukrainian politician and journalist; activist. Recipient of Right Livelihood Award for reporting on Chernobyl disaster, 1992; Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.
"The main danger for the world community is that wars take place on a territory well endowed with nuclear power stations." (Acceptance speech Dec. 9, 1992; photo http://bit.ly/mhsWIv)
Samar Yazbek born Jableh, Syria August 18, 1970. Syrian writer, journalist, and editor. Feminist; follower of Gandhi.
“Because I reject violence, in public and private. . . but if the change does not come, it is another matter.”
“I believe in nonviolent protest. But it might not be enough.” (Cecilia Zecca, IO Donna, April 24, 2011; photo theguardian.com)
Louise Yim Yong-shin born Korea November 21, 1899 (d. 1971). First South Korean representative to UN General Assembly, 1947; independence leader; first female member of parliament; founding president of women's college, 1934.
Heela Yoon, born in Afghanistan on February 19, 1999, currently living in the United Kingdom as a refugee. She is the founder of Afghan Youth Ambassadors for Peace Organization (AYAPO), a grassroots NGO working in the Eastern provinces of Afghanistan. She has worked with GNWP as a peacebuilding fellow focusing on localizing the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Before joining GNWP, she worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Afghanistan as a program coordinator for UNFPA.
Heela graduated from Kabul University with a bachelor’s in political science and a bachelor’s in business finance from the American University of Afghanistan. She completed her master’s in international trade and finance from Leeds Beckett University as a Chevening Scholar. She is currently a research consultant with Amnesty International, focusing on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, and works as a trainee with Oxfam Great Britain.
“Social change takes time, especially when tackling big issues like violent extremism and gender inequality in Afghanistan.”
Ҫiğdem Yorgancioglu born Istanbul, Turkey January 7, 1968. Turkish artist and poet. Panelist at Women Lead to Peace Summit, January 2014.
“The waves of catastrophic events throughout the world in the coming days whispering the apocalyptica of the World. Threatening our next generations and present time of humanbeing. Currently, there are millions of people worldwide who suffer from hunger, illiteracy and significant diseases and disability. . . My mission is to empower and enlighten the nutrition, survival, education, and growth of poor people, especially from the next generation, aim to facilitate the coming together of all people from all over the world.” (Richlend Children Project, March 25, 2010; photo maxhaber.net)
Susannah York (née Fletcher) born London, England January 9, 1939 (d. 2011). British actress; vice-president of the Movement for the Abolition of War; protested nuclear weapons, 1984 and the Iraq War, 2003; campaigned to free Mordechai Vanunu.
"The things that make me very angry are injustice and bullying." (Sunday Mirror, June 13, 1999; photo Wikipedia)
Ruta Yosef-Tudia born Asmara, Eritrea November 27, 1987. Exiled war resister from country where a quarter of army is women, many drafted from school.
“I am against war on principle. I don’t know at al why war is waged. Who dies and who’s in a safe place? The rulers, the members of their families and their children are in a safe place. The others must die. Is there a meaningful war at all? War results in dead people and poverty. The children suffer from it.” (Elster, ed., Women Conscientious Objectors, p. 78)
Nadia Younes born Cairo, Egypt June 13, 1946 (d. 2003). United Nations diplomat; chief of staff Iraq mission; killed in bombing UN office Bagdad; UN Chief of Protocol 1998-2002, organizing UN Millennium Summit 2000; led UN Kosovo information 1999-2001; World Health Organization External Affairs officer 2002; headed UN information office Rome 1993.
"Get a grip, I mean, really.” (her motto per Bassir Pour, CNN, Aug. 29, 2003; photo intlawgrrls)
Marilyn Young (née Blatt) born Brooklyn, NY April 25, 1937 (d. 2017). History professor; anti-war feminist; critic of perpetual war and US imperialism; opposed wars in Vietnam, Iraq; co-founded Historians Against the War, 2003.
“We must work for peace. The best brains in the country do nothing but prepare for war.” (c. 1955, in Jacobin, Feb. 24, 2017)
“Over time, this progression of wars has looked to me less like a progression than a continuation: as if between one war and the next, the country was on hold. . . it is certainly our work to speak and write so that a time of war not be mistaken for peacetime, nor waging war for making peace.” (“I was thinking, as I often do these days, of war”, Diplomatic History, Jan. 19, 2012; photo NYU History)
Leyla Yunus born Baku, Azerbaijan December 21, 1955. Historian. Azeri peacemaker and human rights activist. Co-founder and Director of Azerbaijan Institute for Peace & Democracy. Advocated for perestroika, 1988; involved in Nagorno-Karabakh peacemaking, 1992-93; arrested and beaten, 2014. Promoted reconciliation with Armenia. Awarded Sakharov Freedom Prize, 2014.
"Direct all of the force of your repressive mechanism, which includes assault, car accidents, murders and the whole arsenal, against me personally, a woman whose only weapon is a word. I demand you immediately stop the crackdown and persecution of my colleagues and their families!" (Aug. 31, 2011, in Huffington Post, Oct. 10, 2011; photo meydan.tv)
Lidia Yusupova born Grozny, Chechnya September 15, 1963. Russian human rights activist, called "the bravest woman in Europe" (BBC) who exposed disaster of Chechen war; Nobel Prize nominee; Ennals Award for human rights defenders 2004, Rafto Prize for human rights 2005.
"We should not give up and say that the situation is hopeless. There is still our conscience, there is still the memory of the victims of this war, there is still our duty to try and prevent further bloodshed. We have to prosecute all the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity." (Better World Heroes; photo European Parliament, April 16, 2010)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
