Pavla Moudrá

Overview

Pavla Moudrá born Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary January 28, 1861 (d. 1940). Czech author and translator; founded Prague Chelčisky Peace Society named for famed Czech pacifist, affiliate of International Fellowship of Reconciliation; theosophist; edited feminist magazine Lada 1889; animal-rights defender.

Quotations

“The peace movement is not just a feast to eliminate wars. All the noble endeavors of union are united in it as in a center. Pacifism has both moral and improved order in its social program. Its goal is to create a new order for the future.” (1920, in Olga Slowik dissertation, 2014, p. 10; photo Wikipedia)

Mae Francis Moultrie

Overview

Mae Francis Moultrie Howard born Dillon, SC May 18, 1936 (d. 2010). Educator; ordained minister. Civil rights activist. Freedom Rider; treated for smoke inhalation after KKK firebombing of Greyhound bus, Anniston, AL, 1961.

Quotations

“I am fed up with this. . . We have tried Litigation, Non Violent Protests, and pleading to the government and all it has brought us is threats, injury, and arrest. We must keep riding to get rid of this unjust racism!!!” (May 16, 1961; photo WGBH Freedom Riders)

Maria Lacerda de Moura

Overview

Maria Lacerda de Moura born Monte Alverne farm, Manhuaçu, Brazil May 16, 1887 (d. 1945). Brazilian anarcho-feminist; teacher; journalist. Founded Women’s Anti-war Committee, São Paulo, 1923; published Gandhian-inspired essay "Obligatory Military Service for Women? I Refuse! Denounce it!", 1933.

Quotations

"Freedom depends on conscientious objection" (Proc. XXVI National History Symposium ANPUH, São Paulo, July 2011)

Mo Mowlam

Overview

Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam born Watford, Hertfordshire, England September 18, 1949 (d. 2005). British politician. Member of Parliament, 1987-2001; Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 1997-99. Helped negotiate Good Friday Peace Agreement, ending the Troubles, 1998.

Quotations

"Everyone has got to give a little. No-one is going to get 100% of what they want. If everybody is willing to accept some change, we can do it." (BBC news, Aug. 19, 2005)

Ellen Moxley

Overview

Ellen Moxley born Nanjing, China December 3, 1935. Scottish citizen; Quaker pacifist; zoologist. Worked with Friends in Vietnam; took part in Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protests; founded Dunblane Peace House, 1987; tried and acquitted for damaging British Trident Plowshares nuclear weapons facility Maytime, Loch Goil, Scotland, 1999. Recipient of Right Livelihood award, 2001; awarded Gandhi Peace Prize, 2004.

Quotations

"We feel that it is our responsibility, as global citizens, to take nonviolent, safe, accountable and practical action to disarm these nuclear weapons ourselves." (joint defense notes Trident Plow.; new photo Right Livelihood)

Mozah bint Nasser

Overview

Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned born Al Khor, Qatar August 8, 1958. Muslim wife of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar. UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education, 2003; UN Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) Ambassador, 2010; UN Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group, 2010. Received Chatham House Award for efforts to improve ties between Islam-West relations, 2007.

Quotations

“As a citizen who takes pride in her Arab identity, rich civilization and cultural heritage, I, like hundreds of millions of my people, cannot accept the suffering of our brothers under siege in Gaza and the West Bank, whose values and cultural heritage in Jerusalem are threatened.” (UN Alliance of Civilization, Rio, May 28, 2010; photo theMuslim500)

Gladdys Muir

Overview

Gladdys Muir born MacPherson, KS March 3, 1895 (d. 1967). Taught the first Peace Studies course in America at Manchester College, 1947.

Quotations

“Our society is disintegrating primarily because it has lost its sense of goal, and because its knowledge of skills and tools for the control of the physical world has outrun its ability to understand and control human relations. . . This necessitates a study of the techniques of peacemaking, international relations, and the long view of history.” (1947; portrait Joy Ereckson, Manchester Col.)

Yolande Mukagasana

Overview

Yolande Mukagasana born Butare, Rwanda September 6, 1954. Nurse survivor of genocide 1994; playwright, author; Golden Dove for Peace prize 2002; contributed to women’s leadership in post-genocide reconciliation and culture of peace.

Quotations

“Everything started with the colonial ideology, which spawned the ideology of genocide against the Tutsis.” (The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation, p. 161)

“I know that love has triumphed over hatred and that life has triumphed over death.” (ibid., p.257; photo famiflia.christiana.it)

Jestina Mukoko

Overview

Jestina Mukoko born Gweru, Zimbabwe March 22, 1967. Human rights activist and broadcast journalist. Head of Zimbabwe Peace Project, 2007. Abducted by suspected state agents, 2008; tortured, tried, and released three months later. Awarded Weimar Human Rights Prize, 2009.

Quotations

“Human rights are a fundamental part of our lives. We are born with these entitlements and we have to defend them.” (Project M, April 1, 2010; photo NewZimbabwe.com)

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

Overview

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland born Washington DC September 14, 1941. Freedom Rider student arrested 1961 Jackson MS and imprisoned two months in notorious Parchman Prison; Freedom Summer organizer 1964.

Quotations

"We were past fear. If we were going to die, we were gonna die, but we can’t stop, If one person falls, others take their place." (WGBH American Experience, May 16, 2011; photo Miss. Archives)

Nabeela Al-Mulla

Overview

Nabeela al-Mulla born Kuwait January 25, 1948. Kuwaiti ambassador. First Arab woman to serve as head delegate to UN. Chair of UN Atomic Energy board, promoting nuclear non-proliferation, 2002-03. Negotiated Gulf War POW issue, 1991-92. Sponsored conference to aid Syrian war refugees, 2013. Critic of Israeli policies, including excessive force, failure to register nuclear weapons, and West Bank occupation. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

Quotations

“Women ambassadors are really scarce globally and not only on the Arab scene.”(“Women in Diplomacy”, Sept. 17, 2007; photo worldpeoplesblog)

Peg Mullen

Overview

Margaret “Peg” Mullen (née Goodyear) born Pocahontas, IA June 11, 1917 (d. 2009). Antiwar activist and WILPF member. Mother of draftee soldier killed by friendly fire, Vietnam, 1970. Took out two half-page newspaper ads depicting 719 crosses to memorialize Iowans killed in the Vietnam War. Published autobiography Unfriendly Fire: A Mother's Memoir, 1995. Opposed Gulf, Iraq, Afghan wars.

Quotations

“We have been dying for nine long, miserable years in Vietnam in an undeclared war. . . How many more lives do you wish to sacrifice because of your SILENCE?” (ad placed in Des Moines Register, April 12, 1970)

Florence Mumba

Overview

Florence Mumba born Mufulira, Zambia December 17, 1948. Delegate to Nairobi, 1985; Zambian ombudsman, 1989; presided as judge at Yugoslav War Crimes tribunal, 1997; appointed International Criminal Tribunals vice president, 1999; verdict in first case of wartime rape 2001; Cambodia Tribunal 2009.

Quotations

"Winners win because they try out something." (photo ICTY)

Alaa Murabit

Overview

Alaa Murabit born Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada October 26, 1989. Libyan physician; women’s rights leader. Founding president of Voice of Libyan Women, 2011; spearheaded Noor Campaign to promote Koran’s teachings of nonviolence, 2013.

Quotations

"Many aspects of Islam—such as the importance of peace and nonviolence, particularly within the family unit—are often overlooked." (Daily Beast, July 19, 2013; photo cbc.ca)

Rose Marie Muraro

Overview

Rose Marie Muraro born Rio de Janiero, Brazil November 11, 1930 (d. 2014). Leading Brazilian feminist; self-described “Impossible Woman.” Began work with Hélder Câmara’s Catholic Action, 1946; worked with Leonard Boff for 17 years. Developed “nonviolent communication”; anti-war; opposed military regime.

Quotations

“[T]o educate a man is to educate an individual, but to educate a woman is to educate a society.” (leonardoboff.com, June 29, 2014)

“Without equality between men and women, there will be no peace.” (World People’s Blog; photo bocamaldita.com)

Emily Murphy

Overview

Emily Murphy (née Emily Gowan Ferguson) born Cookstown, Ontario, Canada March 14, 1868 (d. 1933). Canadian jurist; lifelong pacifist; first woman judge in British empire. One of "Famous Five" women who won legal right of woman as a person, 1929. Opposed WWII as caused by over-population; opposed Boer War; witness to dawn of WWI.

Quotations

"There were many tear-stained faces and hearts that ached, too, for these tough-fibered sons of Mars, led like sheep to slaughter, for it will be a mere handful who come home again." (Christine Mander, Emily Murphy: Rebel, p. 51; photo Wikipedia)

Gael Murphy

Overview

Gael Murphy born Paris, France February 10, 1954. Former Foreign Service Officer, aid worker, and Peace Corps volunteer. American co-founder and international coordinator of social justice organization Code Pink. Coordinated Women's Peace Vigil, 2002; arrested for protest at Republican National Convention, 2004.

Quotations

"We are starting this campaign of ‘extralegal lobbying'—nonviolent civil disobedience—at the offices of our Representatives and Senators who refuse to publicly pledge their vote against Bush’s request for an additional $100 billion for the war." (Code Pink, Feb. 12, 2007)

"Don't go to war with Iran. . . What laws have they broken?" (New York Sun, Oct. 25, 2008; photo http://bit.ly/J2ccqW)

Pauli Murray

Overview

Pauli Murray born Baltimore, MD November 10, 1910 (d. 1985). African-American nonviolent civil rights leader; lawyer; teacher; poet; Episcopal priest.

Quotations

"I do not intend to destroy segregation by physical force. . . I hope to see it destroyed by. . . a power of the spirit. . . I intend to do my part through the power of persuasion, by spiritual resistance, by the power of my pen, and by inviting the violence upon my own body." ("An American Credo", Common Ground, Winter 1945, p. 24 cited by Anthony Pinn; photo NOW.org)

Mary Middleton Murry

Overview

Mary Middleton Murry (née Gamble) born Lincolnshire, England August 4, 1897 (d. 1983). British writer, poet, and peace activist. Speaker for Peace Pledge Union; leader of Women’s Peace Campaign opposing World War II, 1939.

Quotations

“This campaign is designed not only to give expression to women's revolt against war, but to their demand that the Government should, at the earliest possible moment, use the method of negotiation to secure a lasting peace.” (Dec. 16, 1939, Peace Pledge Union; photo pinterest)

Betty Kaari Murungi

Overview

Betty Kaari Murungi born Meru South, Kenya December 25, 1960. Kenyan international human rights leader. Co-founder and director of Urgent Action Fund-Africa, 2001-09. Vice-Chair of Kenyan Truth, Justice & Reconciliation Commission, 2007-10. Adviser of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Promoted women’s participation in peacemaking.

Quotations

"[W]omen should be able to participate freely in all aspects of conflict transformation and post-conflict reconstruction. . . women also need to be in the places where peace is being negotiated." (Alliance interview, June 1, 2005; photo standardmedia.co.ke)