Lagi Ballestrem

Overview

Lagi Ballestrem-Solf (née So'oa'emalelagi Solf) born Vailima, Upolu, Samoa August 31, 1909 (d. 1945). Samoan-born German Countess. Member of Solf Circle, a Nazi resistance group. Helped rescue many Jews. Imprisoned, 1944; died before war ended.

Quotations

“I do not think of the past, since it has lost its meaning. The world has learned nothing from it—neither the butcher, nor the victim or the spectator. Our time is like a dance of death, few understand its uncanny rhythm. All whirl around bewildered, without seeing the abyss.” (Wikipedia; photo ballestrem.de)

Anna Baltzer

Overview

Anna Baltzer born Berkeley, CA August 22, 1979. American Jewish defender of Palestinian rights; International Women’s Peace Service volunteer documented nonviolent resistance 2004.

Quotations

“Israel is not the peace-seeking democratic state that most Zionists believe it to be. Many don’t realize that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live under a system of segregation, constant military attacks, house demolitions, land confiscation, imprisonment without trial, and torture. They don’t realize that Palestinian citizens of Israel do not have equal rights, but live as second or third-class citizens.” (Virtual Mosque, Dec. 24, 2009; photo elderofziyon.blog)

Joyce Banda

Overview

Joyce Banda born Malemia, Malawi April 12, 1950. Malawi Foreign Minister, 2006-09. As first woman president of Malawi, restored relations with EU, US, World Bank, 2012-14. Guarantor of Congo-M23 Peace, rejecting violence and ending long war in eastern Congo, 2013.

Quotations

“Yes, God, keep it a land of peace." (to Malawi Broadcasting after attacks on women in Lilongwe who were stripped in public, May 1, 2012)

“Leadership is about falling in love with the people you serve and the people falling in love with you." (Aug. 28, 2013, Malawi Broadcasting)

“I want to appeal to the leaders of the conflicting parties: give peace a chance.” (BNL Times, Nov. 5, 2013; photo Wikipedia)

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Overview

Sirimavo Bandaranaike (née Sirima Ratwatte) born Ratnapura, Ceylon April 17, 1916 (d. 2000). Sri Lankan stateswoman; world’s first female head of state 1960; 3 times prime minister 1960-5, 1970-7, 1994-2000; Socialist; Buddhist; founder of Non-Aligned Movement in Cold War 1961ff. Successfully mediated India-China dispute 1962; peacefully settled India boundary 1964; proposed Indian Ocean as Zone of Peace 1970.

Quotations

“I am happy to attend this great assembly not only as a representative of my country but also as a woman and a mother who can understand the thoughts and feelings of the millions of women, the mothers of this world, who are deeply concerned with the preservation of the human race. . . our endeavour should be to influence world opinion to such an extent that governments, however powerful, cannot regard warfare as an alternative to negotiation.” (Belgrade, Sept. 1961)

“I share the conviction implicit in the theme ‘Equality, Development and Peace’ that a civilised world order can be built only through the joint endeavor of men and women.” (Kay Camp, “Listen to the Women”, 1975, p. 8; photo thefamouspeople.com)

Faith Bandler

Overview

Faith Bandler (née Ida Lessing Mussing) born Tumbulgum, New South Wales September 27, 1918 (d. 2015). Australian of Vanuatu heritage; leader in referendum on aboriginal rights, 1967. Opposed Cold War and nuclear weapons; passport confiscated 10 years after visit to Eastern Europe, 1951. Recipient of Sydney Peace Foundation Award, 2000; Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

Quotations

"We can change anything. We can make a just and peaceful world. History has shown that a genuine people's movement can move more than governments. It can move mountains." (1997, quote and photo World People's Blog)

Barbara Bangura

Overview

Barbara Thaimu Bangura born Belfast, N. Ireland November 13, 1958. Sierra Leone women's leader; trainer in nonviolence and peacebuilding.

Quotations

"The fragility of peace in my country which exacerbates the security challenges to us women and an overall feeling that 'Women are at the edge of the world.'" (Oct. 25, 2006)

Zainab Bangura

Overview

Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura born Yonibani, Sierra Leone December 18, 1959. Muslim women's leader; trainer in nonviolence and peacebuilding. Led UN Mission to Liberia to oversee reconciliation, 2006. Sierra Leone Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2007-10. UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2012.

Quotations

“Sexual violence in conflict needs to be treated as the war crime that it is... It can no longer be written off or treated as an unfortunate collateral damage of war or unavoidable byproduct of political strife.” (Oct. 27, 2012)

Mirta Baravalle

Overview

Mirta Acuña de Baravalle born Uribelarrea, Buenos Aires, Argentina January 15, 1925. Co-founder of Mothers of Plaza Mayo and Grandmothers, protesting disappearances.

Quotations

“We're going to try and find all of them. . . You see, it is like an objective, a pledge we have made for ourselves.” (New York Times, Aug. 13, 1985)

“Today and always, we must fight for justice, which is where human dignity is born. . . When unjust things happen elsewhere in the world we feel compelled to do something.” (Pueblas interview, June 30, 2005; photo abuelas.org.ar)

Yusra al-Barbari

Overview

Yusra al-Barbari born Al-Daraj, Gaza April 15, 1923. Palestinian educator; barred from leaving Gaza. Served Red Cross in WWII and later as executive. Palestinian delegate to UN General Assembly, 1963. Founding President, Palestinian Women’s Union in Gaza, 1964. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

Quotations

“I‘m against occupation everywhere." (C. M. Naim, OutlookIndia.com)

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Overview

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin) born Kibworth-Harcourt, Leicestershire, England June 20, 1743 (d. 1825). English poet schoolmistress who wrote against slave trade and war.

Quotations

"War is a state in which all our feelings and our duties suffer a total and strange inversion." ("Sins of Government", Works vol. II, p.107; photo martinfrost.ws)

Anais Barbeau-Lavalette

Overview

Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette born Montreal, Canada February 8, 1979. Canadian film producer and actress; human rights advocate. Won Artists for Peace Award for film Inch’Allah on Palestine violence, 2012.

Quotations

"Everything that makes us what we are is threatened. That is war. It can enter us and ravage us. We aren’t immune to it. War doesn’t belong only to other people. I think by focusing on an alter ego, it’s easier to grasp the 'humanity' behind the 'inhumanity' of war." (Michel Coulombe interview, 2012; photo ellequebec)

Mary Barbour

Overview

Mary Barbour (née Rough) born Kilbarchan, Scotland February 22, 1875 (d. 1958). Labor organizer; pacifist; birth control advocate for married women. Organized "Mrs. Barbour's Army," comprising tens of thousands of women in nonviolent rent strike in Glasgow, 1916; founded Scottish branch of International League and Women's Peace Crusade protesting World War I, 1916. Established the Women's Welfare and Advisory Clinic, Glasgow's first family planning center, 1925.

Quotations

“Mrs. Barbour's Army brought the maisters tae their knees
Wi' a regiment in pinnies backed by one in dungarees.”

(Alistair Hulett song)

Shirley R. Barbour

Overview

Shirley R. Barbour born April 15, 1918 (d. 2005). American artist; World Federalist. Leader in Rhode Island Nuclear Freeze campaign Women for a Non-Nuclear Future; Rhode Island Peace Mission.

Quotations

"We are motivated by love—love of our beautiful world." (War Resisters League Peace Calendar 1991, October 6)

Alicia Barcena Ibarra

Overview

Alicia Bárcena Ibarra born Mexico March 5, 1952. Biologist and ecologist. Chief of Staff of UN Secretary General, 2006; UN Undersecretary for Management, 2007; first female head of Economic Commission for Latin America, 2008.

Quotations

“This, and not another, is the time for equality." (Aug. 3, 2010, San Juan, Argentina; photo UN)

Judi Bari

Overview

Judi Bari born Baltimore, MD November 7, 1949 (d. 1997). Environmental activist; labor organizer; ecofeminist; leader of Earth First!, 1979; nearly killed by bomb in nonviolent Redwood Summer, 1990.

Quotations

"It is the hatred of feminine, which is the hatred of life, that has helped bring about the destruction of the planet. And it is the strength of women that can restore the balance we need to survive." (The Feminization of Earth First! May 1992; photo judibari.org)

Maude Barlow

Overview

Maude Barlow born Toronto, Canada May 24, 1927. Nonviolent internationalist, co-founded Blue Planet Project 2001; co-founded nonviolent Council of Canadians 1985; won Alternative Nobel Prize 2005; co-founded World Future Council 2004.

Quotations

"[I]f we can get water defined as a human right—which it is. . . You can’t really charge for a human right; you can’t trade it or deny it to someone because they don’t have money." (Mother Jones, Jan. 14, 2005; photo foodandwaterwatch.org)

Laura Clifford Barney

Overview

Laura Clifford Dreyfus-Barney born Cincinnati, OH November 30, 1879 (d. 1974). Baha’i leader. Promoted League of Nations and United Nations. Fluent in Farsi and French. Nurse with American Ambulance Corps, 1914-15, and American Red Cross in France, 1916-18. Representative of International Council of Women at League of Nations and UN; only woman appointed by League Council to Education Committee, 1926. Headed committee to promote peace through film and radio. Active in Institute on World Organization planning for postwar organizations, including UNICEF.

Quotations

"But in our faith, we are to conquer the enemy by wisdom and love." (the woman Qurrat’l-‘Ain, in her play “God’s Heroes”, 1909, p. 36; photo thejourneywest.org)

Nora Stanton Blatch Barney

Overview

Nora Stanton Blatch Barney born Basingstoke, Hampshire, England September 30, 1883 (d. 1971). First American woman civil engineer; radio electronics pioneer and architect; third-generation suffragist peacemaker: granddaughter of Seneca Falls pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, daughter of Harriot Stanton Blatch; author of World Peace Through a Peoples Parliament (1944); opposed Korean War.

Quotations

"Travel by stagecoach is out of date. Kings are out of date: communication by canalboat is out of date; an aristocracy is out of date, none more so than a male aristocracy." (1909, in Suzanne Fischer, "Nora Stanton Blatch", Public Historian, 2010; photo Britannica.com)

Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse

Overview

Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse born Grenoble, France October 23, 1924 (d. 1999). American psychiatrist, professor at Southern Methodist University, and Episcopal priest. Keynote speaker on "Peace, the Universal Yearning: the Voices of Women” at the first International Women’s Peace Conference, Dallas, 1988. President of Peacemakers, 1988.

Quotations

"Women underestimate their own gifts. . . We are in serious trouble when the feminine principle is devalued. Women appreciate the role of emotion in good decision making." (Aug. 8, 1988, in Episcopal News Service, Sept. 22, 1988; crop keep photo on left; salon.com)

Madeleine Barot

Overview

Madeleine Barot born Châteauroux, France July 4, 1909 (d. 1995). French theologian in World War II Resistance, aiding escape of Jews, Roma and political opponents of Hitler; ecumenical scholar; opponent of torture; founded Creators of Peace 1991.

Quotations

"Women are more sensitive to the injustices others are suffering. . . This thirst for justice leads them to become peacemakers." (Michael Henderson, All Her Paths Are Peace, p. 2, 1994; photo archives.wcc-coe.org)