Women speak of nonviolence

By ALEXANDRA RODRIGUEZ
Collegian Staff Writer

A murmur filled Eisenhower Auditorium at around 7:55 last night as people looked for their seats, ready for the speech "Waging Peace for the 21st Century" to begin.

Suddenly, the audience grew silent and three women who have proven a single person can change the world stepped onto the stage.

These women are Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Azar Nafisi and Camelia Anwar Sadat.

Nafisi, a visiting professor at John Hopkins University, originally from Iran, opened the series of speeches by encouraging the audience to use imagination to create a world where human rights are respected.

"Human rights are about universalizing the particularities," she said. "Imagination tells us to defy reality. It teaches us to look at the world through fresh eyes."

She asked the audience not to generalize and explained the world is full of different people and a need to create places for all these people.

Sadat, daughter of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and founder of the Sadat Peace Institute, turned the audience's mind away from imagination and toward reality.

With tears in her eyes, she described the hatred she felt after her father's assassination in 1981. She said her refusal to acknowledge this hatred led her to resort to jokes to hide the pain. She added her mind blocked any news coming from the Middle East. It was not until she realized she felt this hatred that she finally learned to live with it.

"I'm Camelia, I'm Sadat's daughter, and I'm human," she said. "We all deny hate. It's outstanding pain that makes you hate."

She said March 26 will be the 20th anniversary of the peace treaty that was signed between Egypt and Israel, and the fact that peace was achieved between the two countries was proof that history does not always repeat itself.

"History doesn't repeat itself because of reality," she said. "I'm looking for you to help create that reality. Try to bring that reality to your life. It is your life."

She warned the audience that with the advances in technology, the next war will leave no one alive.

Maguire, founder of the Community of the Peace People, delivered an inspirational message. With a smile on her face, she encouraged the audience to solve their problems without acts of violence and to take responsibility for their actions.

"Teach nonviolence to society," she said. "Teach the gentle arts of living and being able to solve our own problems."

She added although she considers herself a friend of the United States, she asks for the country to act against nuclear weapons.

Like Nafisi, she encouraged the audience to dream of a world of nonviolence.

"We can make a better world. We will make a better world," she said. "Let's build a world where we get to love one another."

Tony Louie (junior-economics) said the message was inspirational and easy to understand.

"The message was the same throughout. We need to work together for a common goal -- peace -- and at the same time we have to be happy," he said.