Tag: San’aa Sultan

Women activists and International Women’s Day

Posted on by kathiemm

Today, Thursday March 8, is International Women’s Day. It is a good day for us to be grateful to the women peace activists who contribute to this blog—for example, San’aa Sultan, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, and Jean Gerard.International Women's Day 2012

It is also a good day to celebrate the fact that late in 2011 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women peace activists: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

These are impressive women indeed. In 2005, Mrs. Sirleaf was the first African woman in modern times to be elected to lead an African state; she has used that office to bring peace to Liberia after 14 years of an extremely violent civil war.

Leymah Gbowee founded the Ghana-based Women, Peace, and Security Network Africa. In 2002, she organized a sex strike in Liberia, during which women withheld sex from their husbands until hostilities ended.

Ms. Karman, the youngest candidate ever awarded the Peace Prize and the first Arab woman to receive it,  has been called the “Mother of the Revolution.” She is the founder of Women Journalists Without Chains.

Here are some links that will allow you to see and hear these proponents of peace and justice:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C1mqLRKsJQ&feature=related

Leymah Gbowee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts6WptOD384

Tawakkul Karman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LFMWDFVx7E

Women of all ages, ethnicities, and religions have a long history of fighting for peace and increasingly their efforts and achievements are being recognized. Please share your own stories of efforts on behalf of peace.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Close your eyes

Posted on by kathiemm 
Close your eyes and tell me what do you see? 

Is reality harsher than your vision of peace?
When I open my eyes I see reality and greed,
A world where men choose power and let their souls bleed,
I see the murder of Hamza Al Khateeb,

I witness his death though it’s hard to perceive,
When I close my eyes I wish that you could see,
The vision in my mind that causes my heart to bleed,
I close my eyes and I see a vision of peace,

A vision you could truly say was hard to believe,

I see fallen angels and faces I miss,

Reality is cruel so I see what I wish.

The world in a state where division is rare,

Where if my brother was to bleed every soul would care,

If another needed time everybody would share,
Where through the words of a man his soul would be bare.
Lies, greed, intolerance and hate,

Would be a vision of the past long locked away,

Pain would not exist nor would terror be disguised,

Fear would be a myth no longer seen in your eyes.
When I breathe my last breath and I close my eyes,

Take my vision from this page and witness it through your life.

San'aa Sultan

 

A bouquet of stories: Valentines for peace

Posted on by patdaniel
Malbin peace sculpture
"Vista of Peace" sculpture by Ursula Malbin. Photo by Guillaume Paumier / Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-3.0.

For the second Valentine’s day in the life of Engaging Peace, we want to re-share some posts that have been among the wonderful gifts our readers have given us.  The following selection focuses on messages of peace and love.

(1) A few years ago I joined “Checkpoint Watch,” an Israeli human rights organization of women who monitor and report human rights violations towards Palestinians who move from the occupied territories of Palestine to Israel.  Continue reading →   (Dalit Yassour-Borochowitz, October 21, 2010)

(2) It has been a privilege for the Paraclete Foundation to bring the Benebikira Sisters to Boston and to tell their story of courage and love during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that claimed over 800,000 lives in 100 days.  Continue reading →   (Sister Ann Fox , November 8, 2010)

(3) In a way that only being physically present in this country could convey, I’ve realized that the genocide is a very difficult thing for Rwandans to talk about. If people do speak about the horrors they have encountered, it is only under very hushed circumstances or around people they trust.  Continue reading →   (Andrew Potter, June 23, 2011)

(4) The framework for my reflections is constructed from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Speech delivered at Riverside Church in April, 1967 (a year before his assassination).  Continue reading →   (Dean Hammer,  July 21, 2011)

(5) My father was born and raised in Basra, Iraq. Graduating from Baghdad University, he earned a government scholarship to study in the United States. He completed his graduate studies at Georgetown University. While in DC, he met and married my mom, a nice Jewish girl from New York. Her parents had fled their homeland … Continue reading →   (Dahlia Wasfi, September 19, 2011)

(6) I have just returned from the demonstration to support Occupy Boston (10-10-11) and can happily report that it was a successful march of probably two or more thousand people.  Continue reading →  (John Hess, October 17, 2011)

(7) Over the past few weeks we have heard stories of bravery, courage, hope, happiness, and grief from Palestine. The stories accompanied the news that just over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners would be freed in exchange for … Continue reading →   (San’aa Sultan, November 3, 2011)

(8) Eva Mozes Kor, a “Mengele Twin” who survived the genetic experiments at Auschwitz, chose the non-standard route to recovery: forgiveness.  Continue reading →  (Elina Tochilnikova, December 26, 2011)

(9) From the time of… Moses, who helped guide the Israelis out of slavery and oppression to freedom, to Jesus, who preached equality and love and changed the whole human understanding of power structures, to … Continue reading →   (Majed Ashy, January 12, 2012)

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology, and Pat Daniel, Managing Editor of Engaging Peace

She’s inspiring our youth

Posted on by kathiemm

by guest author San’aa Sultan


If you are looking for a role model, then look no further because we have Dahlia Wasfi.

The first time I met Dahlia, she called herself “Offkey” in comparison to the British lyricist Lowke, but I can tell you quite proudly that she was not in any way “Offkey.” In fact she inspired more people in that one room that one day than I can count, because I watched those people blossom once she left the UK for home.

If you are reading this, then you are actively searching for something, peace I’d guess. Dahlia is definitely an activist, but  like Rachel Corrie, she is more than an activist: she is a model  human being. The woman behind the saying “No justice, no peace” does all that she does through a love for her people and an anger created by the world’s silence while oppressors massacred human beings all over the world.

My own struggle began around about the time that I found out about Dahlia’s existence and since that day I have been hugely influenced by her because of her humanity and courage.

Dahlia told me what her vision of the redefinition of “Ladylike” was going to be and I fashioned her ideas into two poems, Lady Like and Ladylike Part Two.

Her vision inspired me to act. As a young person, I sincerely believe that we need more people like Dahlia to lead and influence our youth. Most needed are female leaders in our struggle for justice;  whilst I have come across many, none has matched Dahlia’s sincerity and humility.