Ruth Manorama born Chennai, India May 30, 1952. Champion of India's lowest social caste, the Dalits; received Right Livelihood Award, 2006.
"To bounce like a ball that has been hit became my deepest desire, and not to curl up and collapse because of the blow." (Dec. 8, 2006 acceptance speech; photo rightlivelihood.org)
Rosa Manus born Amsterdam August 20, 1881 (d. 1943). Dutch feminist and pacifist; co-founded WILPF 1915; archivist founded IAV International Archive of Women 1935; visited women Latin America with Carrie Chapman Catt 1921-3; deported and died in Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück.
"Not even in Holland and maybe not anywhere in the world we shall ever be safe." (Leila Rupp, Worlds of Women, p. 59, 1997; photo historici.nl)
Dacia Maraini born Fiesole, Florence, Italy November 13, 1936. Italian author, playwright, poet; interned in Japanese concentration camp 1943-6; novel Women in War 1975.
“Possession of weapons leads sooner or later to use them. For this it’s 'useful to the community' not to grant permission to citizens to use weapons. In countries where the permit is extended to ordinary citizens, as happens in the United States, and it’s seen these weapons are used: for private crimes, massacres of innocent people perpetrated by crazy people, or criminal assaults. . . Therefore we say that we must abolish the trade in firearms that are 'already' too extensive. Weapons do not speak, they kill. We are for dialogue.” (idiologo.org, Sept. 26, 2005; photo Wikipedia)
Margaret of Austria born Brussels, Belgium January 10, 1480 (d. 1530). Regent of the Netherlands; poet and patron of arts and architecture; negotiated the Treaty of Cambrai, called the "Peace of the Ladies," with Louise of Savoy, 1529.
"Here gentle Margot quietly is laid, Who had two husbands, and yet died a maid." (Epitaph, Bourg-en-Bresse, France; Coninxloo port. c. 1500, Wikipedia)
Diane “Dee” Margetts born Fremantle, Australia March 5, 1955. Australian politician; anti-nuclear activist. Advocate for aboriginal rights. Coordinator for People for Nuclear Disarmament, 1988-91; Green Party Senator, 1993-99. Opposed US bases. Opposed Iraq and Afghan wars, partly because of civilian deaths.
“Don't be fooled by the 'war on terrorism'. . . This is an attack on people of different cultures, who believe in community and are against 'casino' capitalism.” (Green Left Weekly, March 13, 2002)
“The Greens stand on four basic principles: peace and disarmament, environmental sustainability, social justice and participating in democracy.” (speech & photo West Australian Parliament, May 23, 2001)
Marguerite de Navarre born April 11, 1492 (d. 1549). Peace queen and stateswoman; humanist scholar, poet, and playwright. Protected opponents in wars of religion; raised peacemaker daughter Jeanne d'Albret.
"I love and will always live in love." (Shepherdess, Comedy of Mont-de-Merson, 1548; portrait stolaf.edu)
Shadia Marhaban born Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia March 29, 1969. Co-founder and President, Aceh Women's League (LINA); member of the Board of Directors, Aceh School for Peace and Democracy. Only woman involved in negotiations of Aceh Peace Agreement, Helsinki, 2005.
“[M]eaningful participation of women requires a change in the mindset of the society itself. It is with this conviction that I have made myself useful and active in advocacy not only for rights of women but also on creating networks of women mediators in the region so that they are equipped to take on new responsibilities with forceful confidence. Only when women become mediators in the fullest meaning of the word that the dynamics of the peace process would translate into 'justice and dignity for all.'" (UNDPAsia, June 26, 2014; photo n-peace.net)
Maria of Castile (née Maria de Trastámara) born Segovia, Castile, Spain September 1, 1401 (d. 1458). Queen of Aragon. Peacemaker Regent of Aragon, 1420-23, 1432-58. Stopped battle by pitching tent in battlefield, 1428. Negotiated five-year truce between Castile and Catalonia, 1429.
“[I]t was the thing we most desire in the world after the peace with Castile.” (Tortosa, 1434, Barcelona Univ. “La practica della pace”; portrait Wikipedia)
Gladys Marín Millie born Curepto, Maule, Chile July 16, 1941 (d. 2005). Nonviolence advocate. Leader of Chilean Communist Party, 1994-2005. Stood in opposition to Pinochet regime's human rights violations; filed first complaint against Pinochet, 1998. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.
“War is big business for the powerful trans-national groups but meanwhile there is hunger and there are children who die of curable diseases. War is a damnable word and it is necessary to eradicate it. We must direct all our forces towards it; towards peace and understanding between human beings."
"We are against violence; the idea of Communism is to end the social and class inequalities that generate that violence. It was the fascist coup d’etat, with Augusto Pinochet at the top, that installed the most brutal violence that it is possible to know." (quotes and photo 1000PeaceWomen)
Mara Marinaki born Thessaloniki, Greece June 9, 1957. European Ambassador and Principal Adviser on Gender 2015; Greek diplomat ; achieved 50/50 ratio of woman heads of European field missions 2016.
“[W]hen women are at the peace table -the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years increases by 20 per cent, and 35 per cent over 15 years.” (UN Security Council, Oct. 13, 2015; photo UNA New York)
Alice Tepper Marlin born Long Branch, NJ August 10, 1944. Economist. Received Right Livelihood Honorary Award for work in peace-centric ethical investment, 1990.
“I and many of my friends were inspired to commit our lives to breaking the cycle of poverty, and to end the war. We vowed to live more simply, to 'walk lightly on the earth.'” (Feb. 22, 2008; photo Right Livelihood)
Olga del Valle Márquez de Arédez born Villa la Trinidad, Tucumán, Argentina September 9, 1931 (d. 2005). Founded and led Mothers of the Plaza in Jujuy. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.
“I felt rage for so much injustice, revulsion against so much badness. Nobody, not even the gendarmes who watched me could stop me. My slogan was: Never accept. Never shut up. . . I continue fighting for justice, so scarce on this earth.” (World People’s Blog; photo catamararcaadiario.com)
Dora Marsden born Marsden, England March 5, 1882 (d. 1960). British feminist; suffragist; philosopher. Abused in prison for suffrage protests, 1910-11; opposed World War I.
On the rush to war: “The verbal virtue begins where the living strength ends.” (Aug. 1, 1914)
On public cry for war: “‘Mumbo-jumbo, Law and Mesopotamia' can always be relied on to work all the tricks, and cloak all the spoof." (Egoist, Sept. 1914, in Times Literary Supplement, D. Hibberd, Jan. 18, 2004; photo Wikipedia)
Rosalind Marsden born October 27, 1950. British diplomat; ambassador to Afghanistan, 2003; ambassador to Iraq, 2006; first female representative of European Community to Sudan, 2010.
Catherine E. Marshall born Harrow, England April 29, 1880 (d. 1961). British nonviolent feminist and suffragist, co-founded WILPF on her 35th birthday 1915; Secretary of No-Conscription Fellowship 1916; promoted League of Nations and UN.
"When we think of our soldiers and sailors we think of what they suffer. . . But we should also think of the suffering we send them forth to inflict—not from choice of theirs, but because we have found no better way." (Nov. 1914, "Anti-War Suffragists." in Jo Vellacott, History, p. 62, 1977; photo spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
Lenore Guinzburg Marshall born New York, NY September 7, 1897 (d. 1971). Jewish novelist, poet and pacifist leader of American Friends Service Committee; co-founded SANE 1956; WILPF activist. Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize supports world peace 1975.
"I am not embattled. I'm battling, and that makes life so much more interesting." (Sept. 25, 1971 obituary, New York Times; photo ebay)
Lucinda Marshall born August 9, 1956. American feminist and peace activist; poet and blogger. Founded Feminist Peace Network, 2001.
"[T]he same can be said for war—we’ve gone there so many times that it has become politically reflexive. When it comes to peace, however, we’ve had far too little practice." (Common Dreams, May 26, 2014; photo Feminist Peace Network)
Ingela Mårtensson born Ström, Sweden August 19, 1939. Swedish politician and peace leader; Liberal member of parliament 1985-94; opposed militarization by NATO; President Peoples Movement NO to EU, with NATO tie; against Indonesian war in Timor 1993.
“States should not be able to justify violations of human rights in the fight against terrorism.” (motion in Parliament, Jan. 25, 1994; photo riksdagen)
Anne Henrietta Martin born Empire City, NV September 30, 1875 (d. 1951). Suffragist historian; author and journalist under the pseudonym Anne O'Hara. Jailed for suffrage protests London 1910, White House 1917; sentenced to Occoquan Prison; opposed both World Wars; Women's Peace Party 1915; first chair of National Woman's Party 1917; leader of WILPF Peoples Mandate against War; first woman to run for US Senate 1918.
"Equality for women is a passion with me." (Barbara Sicherman, Carol Hurd Green eds., Notable American Women: The Modern Period, p. 460, 1980; photo U. Nevada)
Harriet Martineau born Norwich, England June 12, 1802 (d. 1876). "Mother of Sociology." Abolitionist; feminist; historian; transcendentalist philosopher. Early advocate of care for battle-wounded.
"It was my fixed resolution never to mortgage my brains."
"How did we become involved in an Afghan war, which cost us a deluge of blood and tears?" (British Rule in India, p. 301, 1857; photo spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
