Angelika Beer born Kiel, Germany April 24, 1957. 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; chaired European delegation to Iran; supported democratization of UN.
On American use of force: "Force breeds more force, terror breeds more terror." (Berlin forum, June 14, 2007; photo Wikipedia)
Bodil Begtrup born Nyborg, Denmark November 12, 1903 (d. 1987). Danish diplomat and feminist; delegate to League of Nations, 1938; founder and first chair of UN Commission on Women, 1947; led work on Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; first Danish female ambassador, 1949; led rescue of children from war.
"If we want the women of the world to take an active part in the affairs of the world and of their communities, we must do more than give them equal status with men and urge them on to active public life—we must make it possible for them to accept their responsibilities as citizens, to freely, and without anxiety or strain, take their place with men in order to accomplish, jointly, with the men of the world, those great tasks that must be fulfilled if thinking and living on this earth are to transcend to any degree at all the thinking and living it has known so far!" (1946, http://bit.ly/SFQwcs; photo Nurn. Menschenrechts Zen.)
Margaret Behan born Watonga, OK July 4, 1948. Artist. Native American founder of Cheyenne Elders Council. Member of International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.
"I feel like as a Grandmother, I am a warrior for life." (quote and photo nativevillage.org)
Sarla Behn (née Catherine Mary Heilman) born Shepherd’s Bush, London, England April 5, 1901 (d. 1982). British Gandhian social reformer. Spent eight years in Gandhi's ashram. Imprisoned two years during the Quit India protests. Founded Lakshmi Ashram to empower women, 1946. Active in Bhave's Bhoodan (“land gift”) movement. Founded Chipko environmental movement, 1972.
“The education system in Udaipur involved four hours of teaching and four hours of manual working in fields, besides cleaning toilets, washing own clothes and cooking. This spirited me and encouraged me to work more for women and dignity of labour.” (autobiography, in The Tribune, Aug. 24, 2015; photo uttarkhaand-times)
Sally Belfrage born Hollywood, CA October 4, 1936. Journalist; civil rights activist; wrote memoirs detailing nonviolent Freedom Summer and Greenham movement; war tax resister.
"Few of them could explain what it was, in the middle of their generation's apathy, that had made them care, but the fact that they did seemed a phenomenon of as much hope for America as the Negro revolution they were about to join." (Freedom Summer, p. 5)
Edith Bell born Hamburg, Germany November 11, 1923. Holocaust survivor; Raging Granny; WILPF leader illegally shadowed by FBI.
"My grandchildren keep me going, and I worry about the world we are leaving for them. So I will keep fighting and am not going to stop now." (ACLU, March 14, 2006; photo almostearth)
Carol Bellamy born Plainfield, NJ January 14, 1942. Director of Peace Corps, 1993; Executive Director of UNICEF, 1995; first president of Lawyers Committee to End the War.
"When the lives and the rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses." (to UN Security Council, Jan. 10, 2004; photo http://uni.cf/zsafuF)
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (née Smith) born Mobile, AL January 17, 1853 (d. 1933). Women's rights activist; multi-millionaire. With Alice Paul, founded and led National Women's Party, 1916; supported first picket of White House.
"Just pray to God. She will help you." (1911 photo Wikipedia)
Esther Benbassa born Istanbul, Turkey March 27, 1950. French-Jewish historian and politician. Awarded Seligman Human Rights Prize for work against racism, 2006; elected French senator, 2011.
“[T]he real question of the discrimination the immigrants face in French society. . . doesn't allow for social and economic mobility—except in the rare instance.” (NY Sun, Jun. 7, 2006; photo Fayard authors)
Ida Whipple Benham born Quakertown, CT January 8, 1849 (d. 1903). Quaker; peace poet; director of American Peace Society, 1897.
"The coals of war come quickly to a glow;
And still the cannon crowd the parapets.
Ready and waiting—keen for sharp dispute!
Blind man, thou temptest sore the lightning stroke."
(The Armed Truce, Advocate of Peace, Aug. 1895, p. 173; photo http://bit.ly/AEZLsE)
Medea Benjamin born New York September 10, 1952. Founded anti-war Code Pink 2002; co-founded United for Peace & Justice 2004; began Global Exchange 1988; economist 10 years with FAO in Africa; Green Party candidate for Senate from California 2000.
"We must insist that governments stop taking innocent lives in the name of seeking justice for the loss of other innocent lives." (Global Exchange, 2002; photo Code Pink)
Phyllis Bennis born Los Angeles, CA January 19, 1951. American journalist and author; peace activist; opponent of Israeli occupation and Gaza war; began activism opposing Vietnam War, supporting Civil Rights movement, 1969. Head of New Internationalism Project at Institute for Policy Studies (IPS); founded U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, 2002; opposed US imperialism, esp. Iraq and Afghan Wars, Libya intervention, ISIS bombing.
"You can't destroy an ideology—or even an organization—through bombing. . . A military strike might bring some immediate satisfaction, but we all know revenge is a bad basis for foreign policy, especially when it has such dangerous consequences." (Popular Resistance, September 12, 2014; photo World People's Blog)
Fatou Bensouda born Banjul, Gambia January 31, 1961. International Criminal Court Deputy Prosecutor, 2004; International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor, 2012.
"There is an intrinsic link between justice and peace, by putting an end to impunity for the perpetrators of most serious crimes, the court can and will contribute to the prevention of such crimes, thus having a deterrent effect." (Africa News, Feb. 6, 2010; 2008 photo Wikipedia)
Nana Berekashvili born Tblisi, Georgia January 27, 1951. Psychologist; UNIFEM trainer on Women's Role in Conflict Resolution and Peace-building, 1999; International Center on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN); Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC).
"Sexual violence during the armed conflict is still tabooed issue, and you never learn about cases from media." (quote & photo GPPAC)
Meg Beresford born London, England September 5, 1937. British campaigner against nuclear weapons. Organizing Secretary for European Nuclear Disarmament (END), 1981-83; General Secretary of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 1985-90.
"It's not just the case of trying to stop a nuclear war but of showing that people have been dying for the last 40 years because of the nuclear industry." (New Scientist, p. 88, June 13, 1985)
Meta Berger (née Schlichting) born Milwaukee, WI February 23, 1873 (d. 1944). Democratic Socialist reformer; postwar national leader in WILPF. Opposed World War I; member of Milwaukee Emergency Peace Committee, opposing recruiting, 1917. Delegate to disarmament conference, Geneva, 1932.
"I had never taken the absolutist pledge that I would never support a war. As a Socialist I had learned. . . that there may have to be a final conflict between those who work and those who exploit. . . [when] Hitler began his reign of terror. . . I was now determined to fight to abolish all the things that were in the way of peace in the world." (A Milwaukee Woman’s Life on the Left, 2001, pp. 159-60)
Greta Berlin born Detroit, MI April 6, 1941. Peace activist for Palestine justice 1967; co-founder Free Gaza Movement 2006, Gaza Flotilla 2008, 2010.
"Never underestimate the power of pissed-off women." (July 13, 2010, Elias Harb interview; photo mycatbirdseat.com)
Aline F. Berman born May 8, 1927 (d. 2003). Chinese-American peacemaker; Women Strike for Peace delegate to Jakarta conference with Vietnamese women 1965. Voice of America news editor.
“She said this war violates the Geneva Conference, she said the people are still fighting for independence and see the United States as merely taking the place of the French; they believe Americans have no business there.” (ACLU FBI files)
Desiree Bernard born Georgetown, Guyana March 2, 1939. International lawyer. First female judge of Supreme Court of Guyana, 1980; first female Chief Justice of Guyana, 1996; appointed to Caribbean Court of Justice, 2005.
“[W]omen [should] call in the debts and promissory notes owed to them by men and demand a halt to the escalating rise in violent behaviour.” (Antigua, Caribbean Quarterly, Dec. 2009; photo Caricom)
Minerva Bernardino born Seibo, Dominican Republic May 7, 1907 (d. 1998). One of four women who signed UN Charter 1945; responsible for Charter's words: ''to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination against race, sex, condition or creed.'' Insisted on words "Free Human Beings" in UN Covenant on Human Rights. (photo mbernardinofoundation.org)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
