Where Is Lysistrata Now That We Need Her?

Lysistrata brought an end to the Peloponnesian War by persuading Greek women to withhold sex until the men signed a peace treaty. (The women also seized the Athenian treasury-no money for the war.) Lysistrata, of course, was a fictional heroine in a comedy written by a man and performed by an all-male cast for an all-male audience. Nevertheless, her story has inspired women to work for peace throughout the centuries and twelve women peacemakers have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Their true stories are also inspiring and tell us that even if we aren't prepared to give up sex, and even though each of us has different resources, skills, responsibilities, and personalities, each of us can champion peace. After all, not one of the women winners of the Peace Prize could have been expected to become a heroine. Who are the twelve? What did they do? What can we do?

Bertha von Suttner was born a countess and Rigoberta Menchu Tum a subsistence farmer. Von Suttner's anti-war novel, Lay Down Your Arms, made her the most famous woman in Europe and Menchu Tum's autobiography (taped not written) led the United Nations to intervene and bring an end to Guatemala's long civil war. Jane Addams went from being the most beloved woman in America to being the most reviled after she and her friend Emily Balch, a professor of economics, led opposition to World War I. Their Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is close to 100 years old and in 2000 helped secure U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 guaranteeing women a place at all peace negotiations. Both were among the first women to get college degrees and had Quaker ties

Secretaries Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan organized Catholic and Protestant women in Northern Ireland and throughout the British Isles to march for peace. Their Catholic faith was central to the lives and action of both Corrigan and Mother Teresa who grew up in Skopje under Ottoman Rule. As a religious Mother Teresa's service was in India, although the order she founded sent Indian women as missionaries to other countries including the United States. Alva Myrdal's high school had no pre-college curriculum and she had to take a loan in order to pay a tutor to prepare her for the university entrance exam. She became a member of Sweden's legislature, once was the highest ranking woman working in the U.N., and served as Ambassador to India before retiring and beginning her prize-winning work on disarmament.

Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's "father", gave up life as wife of an Oxford don to lead her country's democracy movement. She has been under house arrest for much of the last two decades because she won a national election. Small town America's Jody Williams led the successful campaign for the international treaty banning landmines. (A treaty the United States has not signed.) Iran's Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer, defends opponents of the government insisting at home that Islam is fully compatible with democracy, and in talks abroad that democracy is not advanced by dropping bombs. Wangari Maathai, from rural Kenya, is the only one with a PhD. Her contribution has been to lead African women to renew their land by planting millions of trees. Politics, of course, got in the way, and after enduring beatings and jail she is to be the host of next year's international meeting of Green parties which will be held in Nairobi.

These women come from all over the globe. One began her work in her teens, Myrdal after ostensibly retiring. Some were single, some married, some with children some without. Several had little education, only one had a doctorate. None were rich. Even the Countess was without funds and worked as a governess. There were three things they shared. The first was a commitment to act-not discuss, not complain, not wait "until". Second, they persevered, perhaps because they were incorrigible optimists. Third, they were not deterred by criticism, pressure, and in some cases by beatings and arrest.

We need some Lysistratas. U.S. peace activists may not be being arrested or beaten, but they are being ignored by the media, by the government, by the presidential candidates. We need to act, to persevere, to ignore ridicule and pressure, and, importantly, to become as imaginative as Aristophanes' fictional heroine.

Judith Stiehm is a professor of political science. She has studied and worked with the military but has also authored Nonviolent Power and most recently Champions for Peace:Women Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. The action she has taken is to work with the American Friends Service Committee to create a school for girls in Afghanistan's Bamian province. It opened in March with ten rooms and 450 students but no heat. Read her book. You will get inspired too.

Comments

[ChartreuseMuse]

That certainly doesn't mean it's acceptable to just give up!
After all, you're reading the Huffington Post, not watching Entertainment Tonite on this site!
There's hope in that!

If either of you are women, what are you doing?
I'm busy trying to be Lysistrata-lite with what I can do holding down a full-time job while chairing a local Green party and Sierra club group, writing letters to officials, and generally trying to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

WHile many of us may never win any acclaim or appreciation in monetary terms for our hard work, together we may add up to or inspire another Rigoberto Menchu, Wangari Maathai, and the many others who inspire us.

Let's not wait "until."

[nunzia]

I wouldn't hold my breath for that kind of activism today.
Lysistrata has devolved to Lindsay, Brittany, and Paris.
Young women are too busy getting their nails done, getting their breasts enlarged, sweating at the gym to stay thin, thin thin, and spending thousands of dollars on purses, dope clothes and clubs.
Look at who their "idols" are.

[Macready]

we sure do and hillary certainly is no Lysistrata!