April 24

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1878 Marie Mayoux born Lesterps, Cherente, France (d. 1969). French Socialist internationalist and anarcho-syndicalist teacher's union organizer. Began first pacifist opposition to World War I; she and husband tried for inciting desertions, 1917, sentenced to 6 months prison, increased to two years on appeal.

  • 1918 Elisabeth Mann Borgese born Münich, Germany (d. 2002). American-Canadian maritime law expert. Promoted Pacem in Maribus ("Peace in the Sea") conferences, 1970, leading to UN Law of the Sea Convention, 1982.

  • 1942 Barbara Streisand born Brooklyn, NY. Singer; antiwar advocate.

  • 1946 Kamla Bhasin born Shaheedanwali, Punjab, India. Indian social scientist, feminist; song-writer and poet; 2003 co-founded 1000 Women for Nobel Peace Prize 2005; co-founder Peace Women Across the Globe (PWAG) Bern 2006; Freedom from Hunger campaign of UN Food & Agriculture Organization specialist 1979-2001; worked for Indian-Pakistani reconciliation.

  • 1957 Angelika Beer born Kiel, Germany. Co-founded Green Party, 1980; member of German parliament, 1987-90, 1994-2002. Coordinated international campaign against landmines, 1992-94; co-signed leaders' declaration against nuclear weapons, 1998.

  • 1986 Alexandra Shevchenko born Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. Co-founded FEMEN ("Feminism’s shock troops"), 2008. Arrested five times for bare-breasted protests in Ukraine, Belarus, France, Italy, Germany. Confronted Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel, Hamburg, 2013.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1971 United Women's Contingent protested Vietnam War in DC. "It is directly in the interest of the feminist movement to demand an end to this war which consumes lives and resources that should be allocated to the needs of women and other oppressed sectors."

  • 1979 Australian women protest ANZAC Day. "Women do this because war is the belief that violence solves things."

  • 1985 Every Woman's Peace Camp at Vancouver BC. "The world simply cannot survive another major war."

  • 2001 UNIFEM Report of Effect of War on Women by Ellen Sirleaf & Elizabeth Rehn published.

  • 2015 Peacemaker Sabeen Mahmud assassinated in Karachi.