Auteur/autrice : Heidi Barathieu-Brun

Ana Raffai – Croatia

Linked with our presentation of the The European Church and Peace Network.

Linked also with our presentation of Center for Peace Studies – Ontario/Canada.

And linked with our presentation of How churches become peace churches.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « Every person is able to work for freedom. In each of us there is great potential – a resource for a better future. The beginning and fundamental question of change is: What can I do for freedom? »

Ana Raffai – Croatia

She works for the Center for Peace Studies; for the NGO Rand; and for the European Church and Peace Network.

Ana Raffai, a Roman Catholic Croatian theologian, has been training and mentoring over 500 peace activists on nonviolence and peace mediation over the last ten years. Together with her husband, she has designed and led various workshops for the Center for Peace Studies. Some of their trainees are now trainers in peace education themselves.

She also works with the non-governmental organization (NGO) Rand in peace education for different faith groups. Recently, she has become more involved with NGOs that are active in protest and training for protest. Ana Raffai first met the word « peacemaking » at the beginning of the war in Croatia.

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Nuruddin Farah – Somalia

He said about himself during the book fair in Geneva, April 2006: « I am a refugy out of Somalia, but I am in the rest of Africa », (meaning, I am at home in Africa).

(Read all this also on kirjasto.sci.fi). Somali novelist, writing in English and Somali. Farah has ofted dealt the history of his country throught the fates of his characters. The central theme in his work is the women’s liberation in postcolonial Somaliland, which he sees as a precondition for political and individual freedom.

Nuruddin Farah – Somalia

The majority of his essays, novels, short stories, plays, and film scripts are written in English, but he has also translated children’s stories from Arabic, Italian, French, and English into Somali. Farah received in 1998 the Neustadt Award.

« What we hear from beginning to end is the daring, lush, urbane voice of the author. Farah writes in English, which would be his second or third language, and his collisions of folkloric, academic and realistic prose produce a startling effect, at times wildly improbable in a way few native speakers would permit themselves…. Yet this means his work is also capable of a freedom and exuberance that might be unavailable if the words were embedded in a clearer context. » (The New York Times Book Review).

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Naw Zipporrah Sein – Burma/Myamar

Linked with our presentation of U.N Must Act to End Attacks on Karen in Burma/Myamar.

Linked also with our presentation of the Karen Women’s Organization KWO – Burma/Myamar.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: “The voices of many women striving for peace, freedom and equality among human beings shall be heard better and better and will become the most powerful voice in the world community.”

Naw Zipporrah Sein – Burma/Myamar

She works for the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO).

Naw Zipporrah Sein was born in 1955 at Saw Kar Der Village, Kler Lweh Htoo District, Karen State, Burma. She was home educated by her mother before she went to school in the conflict zone in Karen State (Kaw Thoo Lie) where she completed her teacher education. For safety reasons, she sought refuge in Thailand in 1995 where she instilled and promoted education for Karen women in refugee camps. In 1998, Sein moved on to work for the Central Committee of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) as coordinator and executive secretary, a position she still holds.No human beings want to desert their homeland to seek refuge in other countries where they find their lives equally miserable, due to lack of recognition of their status, causing them to live in hiding day after day. But when death is imminent, fleeing is inevitable and they go with the hope that one day, when the sovereignty and freedom of their motherland is restored, they will be able to return.

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Abdullahi Ahmed an-Na'im – Sudan

Linked with our presentation of the Speech by Abdullahi Ahmed an-Na’im.

He is a Sudanese academic and human rights activist – A native of northern Sudan, Professor Abdullahi An-Na’im holds an LLB (Honours) from the University of Khartoum, Sudan (1970), an LLB (Honours) and Diploma in Criminology from the University of Cambridge, England (1973) and a PhD in Law from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (1976).

Abdullahi Ahmed an-Na’im – Sudan

His identity as an African and a Muslim has guided his academic and professional interests as he has strived to reconcile his Islamic faith with his commitment to the universal acceptance of and respect for human rights. An-Na’im is now widely known for his search for a cultural legitimisation of human rights within both African and Islamic contexts and his works on the modernisation of Sharia. This latter interest stems from 1968 when he joined the Islamic reform movement of Ustadh Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, The Republican Brothers, whilst a student at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. By joining the movement An-Na’im demonstrated his commitment to a Sufi reformist doctrine.

In the early 1980s when Islamisation was expanding its grip on the country, the movement and other opposition groups became targets for persecution. In December 1984, the movement was suppressed and Taha executed soon after, leading An – Na’im to leave the country in April 1985. Like many immigrants or exiles, he left hoping that he would be able to return sooner rather than later.

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Ismat Chughtai – Pakistan-India (1915 – 1991)

Linked with our presentation of Islamic Studies in Canada.

Ismat Chughtai was an eminent Indian Urdu writer. She was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh and grew up largely in Jodhpur where her father was a civil servant.

Noor Shah writes after her death (excerpt): … There is no denying the fact about her literary greatness. She was really a great short story writer and in the words of Qurratulain Haidar, she was Lady Changez Khan … I want to reproduce an extract from the letter written by film actor Janki Das which he had written immediately after her death. The letter said, ‘Ismat Chughtai had the habit of saying or doing something startling in her life. She had once said that she should be thrown into the sea where fishes would swallow her and when the people would eat the fishes, she would come back to them’. (Read the whole long article in the MG Milli Gazette).

Ismat Chughtai – Pakistan-India (1915 – 1991)

In 1941, she was charged with obscenity for her short story « The Quilt » (« Lihaaf » in Urdu) which dealt with lesbianism, among other issues. She was acquitted after her lawyer successfully argued that the story could not be a corrupting influence because the subject would only be understood by someone who has had a lesbian experience. Along with Rashid Jahan, Wajeda Tabassum and Qurratulain Hyder, Ismat’s work stands for the birth of a revolutionary feminist politics and aesthetics in twentieth century Urdu literature. She explored feminine sexuality, middle-class gentility, and other evolving conflicts in the modern Muslim world. She was briefly associated with the membership of the Urdu Progressive Writer’s Movement in Lucknow. She appeared in Shyam Benegal’s 1978 film Junoon, and she died in Bombay in 1991. (Read the rest of this article on wikipedia).

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Anat Biletzki – Israel

Linked with our presentation of Edward Said (1935-2003), by Anat Biletzki.

And linked with our presentation of B’Tselem.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « For the past years I have been engaged in the effort to intertwine philosophy with politics, gradually drawing the desired idealism closer to the existing realism. »

Anat Biletzki – Israel

She works for The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem).

She writes: Abstract – The oft-repeated mantra of human rights organizations is that “human rights are not political’,” human rights being grounded in universalism, which is diametrically opposed to political partisanship. The philosophical question to ask is: how can rights discourse be anything but political? This gives rise to a conceptual paradox concerning the very fundamentals of human rights; it also leads the way to pragmatic quagmires in which “global” human rights organizations find themselves. But the epitome of this (conceptual and concrete) dilemma is to be found in conflict situations where local/national human rights groups operate, for these groups literally embody the contradiction between universal moral principles and particular human interests. Does this mean, then, that the ideological opposition between politics and human rights, as originally contrued in standard and traditional human rights talk, has brought the concrete manifestation of human rights to a dead-end? Is there any way for local human rights organizations – real, operational, organizations that are not globally oriented – to substantiate their particular focus without reneging on universal demands? Or are they doomed to represent, in their respective agendas, their political, “biased” context?

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Irene Rodriguez – Switzerland and Argentinia

Linked with our presentation of FIZ – Women’s Information Center.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « Solidarity is the heart of people. In the name of life, we need respect. »

Irene Rodriguez – Switzerland and Argentinia

She works for Minka alter Latina, and for Infoladen Kasama , and also for Women’s Information Center (FIZ),

Irene Rodriguez was born into a large poor family in Argentina. Her life was filled with rape, brute force, pain, and misery. With only three years of school, Irene soon became a victim of prostitution and slave trade. With unbelievable toughness she managed to survive, to actually free herself, and legalize her existence in Switzerland. She is now a source of power for those who are in the hands of prostitution and slave trade, a tireless fighter for those who are willing to get out. Irene Rodriguez fights for the basic rights of illegal migrants, a voice for those who have none.

Once upon a time there was a little girl in Missiones in Argentina. Her family was big and poor and violence was the daily bread. Not knowing anything else Irene thought that this is life as it is. She never stands up against her mother who permits the male members and friends of the family to rape the young body and soul. The child is only nine or ten when her mother finally comes to the conclusion that something is wrong about how her little girl is being treated.

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Snjezana Mulic–Busatlija – Bosnia and Herzegovina

She is one of the 1000 women proposed fort the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « The biggest barricades are in people’s heads. »

Snjezana Mulic – Busatlija – Bosnia and Herzegovina

She works for the ‘Dani Magazine’, Sarajevo, and for the ‘Women’s Association Bosancic’.

For the past 12 years, Snjezana Mulic-Busatlija has been working to promote and protect human rights, exposing herself to innumerable risks in a militarized environment and a society driven by nationalism and ethnic division. Through her work as a journalist, she has drawn public attention at national and international levels to the conditions of people during and after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has never renounced the highest journalistic principles or given in to numerous forms of pressure. Her courage demonstrated that it is possible to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement.

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Aïda Chouk – France

She is a judge to the Bobigny’s court. She is also the Présidente of the magistrature’s union. She has succeeded Evelyne Sire-Marin in 2004. The magistrature’s union is placed on the left on the french political arena. Like this, the work’s axis of the Presidente are, notably, the independance of the public prosecutor’s office facing political power and the community justice. She is opposed to the increase in immediate appearance and to the emergency justice. (Read the rest on Ideas diary).

Aïda Chouk – France

Excerpt: France – Wiesenthal Center officials met with the heads of the French Magistrates Union … The President of the Magistrates Union, Judge Aida Chouk, felt that, « though, since 2001, the law had been reinforced, the volume of juvenile delinquency and recidivism had overloaded the judicial system. Moreover, as prison sentences were repressive and counter-productive, the tendency was to impose a research assignment on antisemitism. [Because] most offenders are uneducated minors from Paris slum peripheries, such [prison] penalties are not the answer, » he asserted. Chouk felt that a global approach was needed to train judges, police and teachers as partners to the solution. The Wiesenthal Center will continue to urge that tougher sentencing become a part of that approach.
(Red the rest on the Blog of Simon Wiesenthal Center).

Read this text in english, translated from french (by Patrick Bolland ), about ‘The Suburbs: In the Wake of the Uprising’ (Cyrille Poy: Banlieue, lendemains de révolte), to get a picture of the situation.

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Index April 2006