Face to Face
Peacemakers of the world
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A thousand women from 153 countries have been jointly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. These are women who have turned personal tragedies into opportunities to fight for others, says Kamla Bhasin, South Asia Coordinator of the forum which nominated the women. Excerpts from a conversation with MEENA MENON.
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Photo: Vivek Bendre
Working together: Peace is a multi-dimensional effort, feels Kamla Bhasin.
`These are the most beautiful women in the world for me,' says Kamla Bhasin pointing to a Delhi city magazine, which features some of the Indian women who have been jointly nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. For the first time, a thousand women from 153 countries have been nominated, a symbolic number, to make a forceful point that so many women around the world are engaged at various levels to promote peace, justice and equality.
Of the 1,000 women, 157 are from South Asia, which is the largest number from any region and 91 from India, the highest from any country. The names of the 1000 women were publicised on June 29. The Norwegian Nobel Committee will probably announce the winner on October 14.
The role of ordinary women
Bhasin, who is South Asia coordinator of the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005", told The Hindu in an interview that it all started off with a widespread concern about so few women winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Over the years, only 12 women have been awarded the prize. In 2003, Dr. Ruth-Gaby Vermot Mangold of the Socialist Party of Switzerland, an academic and peace activist, took up the issue. During her travels in conflict areas like Bosnia, Dr. Ruth had the chance to see the situation in which ordinary women were doing so much to conserve and nurture their lives. Their efforts needed to be recognised in some way, she felt. From these travels came the idea to nominate hundreds of women who were making a collective effort worldwide for the cause of peace and justice.
Bhasin, a feminist, activist and author with vast experience working with the United Nations in South Asia, is now regional programme advisor to the South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers (SANGAT). "When I was first told about the project, I knew it would take up a lot of my time. But it sounded such a fantastic idea and it was so political that I was one of the first coordinators to be on board," she says. The selection committee was quite formal with 20 coordinators from various regions plus a Swiss committee.
Not an easy project
"We met five times in Switzerland to define our criteria of peace, of whether we should have individuals or organisations and if we should have nominations from all the 220 countries. It would have been lovely to get at least one woman from every country but we managed to get women from 153 countries all over the world," she explains. The task was not easy and the whole project had to be disseminated and nominations had to be invited.
The project, which had support from the Swiss minister of foreign affairs, UNIFEM, UNDP and others, roped in women's movements, peace groups, the media, NGOs and all kinds of people on a global level to choose the nominees. "We even had a sort of a quota system and South Asia got 160, though there was no fight for numbers. I was handling the largest number of women. South Asia not only has the largest population but also a wide range of issues in terms of wars, regional conflicts, poverty and also the amount of work being done here is massive," she adds.
"What was most beautiful was that we were looking at the positive side, not at the problems but at solutions, at the most committed and fearless women, at women who had turned personal tragedies into opportunities to fight for others — such as Shah Jehan from New Delhi who has become a fighter after a personal tragedy or Krishna Kumar who had two disabled daughters at a time when there were no facilities for such children. She ended up starting two large organisations for the disabled," she says.
"We were dealing with something so beautiful, creative and empowering at the same time. We have women from the remotest corners and 25 per cent of our nominees are from the grass-roots level who never had formal education. There is a strong connection between those working at various levels right from the grassroots upwards," she explains.
Universal consciousness
The selection process was tough, as the committee did not want to reject any of the 2000 nominations that were received. "We realised that peace cannot be established by one person alone but is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional effort — just as there are so many sources of exploitation and there are many hierarchies of power struggles. Efforts to undo this injustice will have to be made at all levels right from education to legal matters to health to environmental struggles and this is what the various women are engaged in," says Ms. Bhasin.
"These are the women who should be elected Miss Universe or Miss World because their consciousness is universal. The beauties of today are selfish, self-centred people who do not hesitate to use the name of Mother Teresa and sell out to corporates. But these women, who are our nominees, are people who truly live for others," she remarks. Since their campaign began in 2003, two women have won the Nobel Peace — Shirin Ebadi from Iran and Wangari Mathai from Kenya. "We see that our movement has already made a change," she smiles.
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