Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontlines

Karen Barker
RE Coordinator
UU Society of Laconia, NH
Laconia, NH

“Today’s battlefields are our schools, our villages, and our communities. Increasingly, violence is used against women as a tool of war. Yet it is women and civilians who are holding the communities together during conflict and crisis–they are on the frontlines.”
Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM

More than a year in the making, Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontlines premiered at the United Nations on October 30, 2003, as a key piece in a week-long anniversary celebration of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace, and Security.”

This emotionally charged feature provides an exclusive view of the world through the eyes of ten strong, determined, and compassionate women, who are transforming both their communities and themselves into a new culture of peace.

Focusing on two women in each of five countries, this documentary takes viewers into the lives of women who are engaged in often-ignored aspects of peace building. These intimate accounts range from former underground teachers educating women and girls in Afghanistan, to female leaders of the unemployed workers promoting participatory democracy in Argentina, to community builders providing micro-credit loans to women in Bosnia-Herzegovina, to Hutu and Tutsi women working together to operate a peace radio station in Burundi, to women who lost family members on 9/11, now leading the search for peace in the United States. Peace By Peace includes interviews with Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM; Isabel Allende, Chilean-American humanitarian and writer; Azizah al-Hibri, Founder-Director of Karamah (Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights); Susan Collin Marks, Executive VP of Search for Common Ground; and Jean Shinoda Bolen, psychologist and expert on the ways women organize. Running time: 89 minutes.

I highly recommend the following video as a resource for congregations who are seeking positive examples of peacemaking throughout the world. While the video does not gloss over the horrendous acts that took place in the five countries highlighted in the film, it is ultimately a very hopeful message about the capacity of the human spirit to rise above tragedy, offer forgiveness, and seek true and lasting peace. It is most suitable for teens and adults, due to some graphic images of violence and its results. We have shown it twice in our area, and each time the audience had an overwhelmingly positive reaction. For more information, contact Peace by Peace at www.peacexpeace.org or write to Peace by Peace, 2086 Hunters Crest Way, Vienna, VA 22181 USA.