Alternatives to War - Peacemakers Tell Stories
New California Media, Donal Brown, Posted: Sep 30, 2002
After the Russians executed her father, Shahla Arsala lost her home and her job and after emigrating from Afghanistan to the United States, her husband died of cancer. Enduring these tragic events made her determined to help others suffering similar fates.
Arsala and others will tell their stories as part of an interfaith program this Sunday, Oct. 6 from 2-4 p.m. – “Another Way is Possible: True Stories of Real-Life Peacemaking” – at the University of San Francisco Lone Mountain Campus, Pacific Rim Conference Room.
Founder of the Afghan Women’s Association International, Arsala began writing letters of support to widows in Afghanistan after she herself was widowed. She then began a project sponsoring the widows by sending from $20-30 a month. To date through the Afghan community in Fremont, her group has organized the sponsoring of 90 widows.
Her group’s goals include building bridges between the U.S. and Afghanistan, supporting Afghan women here and abroad, defending their rights and helping them become self- sufficient. Some men in her community criticized their efforts, but, she said, “We were tougher than their criticism.”
Others appearing on the program with Arsala will be Ofer Shorr, an Israeli refusenik; Carin Anderson, who works with “peace villages” in Colombia; Lorene Zouzounis, a Palestinian poet; and Christina Leana, A Filipino woman who is mobilizing a network of women against militarization.
Leana’s group, East Asia U.S. Puerto Rico Women’s Network Against Militarism started in 1997 with 40 women from South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines and the United States to examine how the military has adversely affected women, children and the environment.
Leana says the military purports to be creating security but in its incursions and bases actually creates insecurity for civilian populations. Her group has protested the environmental damage of the U.S. naval base on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico and the impact of Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines in creating a huge surge in prostitution.
These individual stories are intended to challenge the excessive reliance on warfare as an anwer to terrorism. “We could have chosen to use the tools of policing and international law rather than the tools of warfare. But our culture consistently emphasizes one narrow story: that military action is the only answer to aggression and conflict, that only the use of force will save us,” said Sandra Schwartz of the American Friends Service Committee.
The Oct. 6 event follows a Dec. 4 ecumenical conference in wake of Sept. 11 and the war in Afghanistan. Planners include American Friends Service, Committee, Berkeley United Methodist Church Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Fellowship of Reconciliation, First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, Jhai Foundation, San Francisco Friends Meeting and St. Ignatius Catholic Church.
Among the sponsors for Oct. 6 are the University of San Francisco Jesuit Community, the University of San Francisco University Ministry, Crabgrass, Fellowship in Christ-Church of the Brethren and the U.S. Vietnam Friendship Association.
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