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Three area AAUW branches underwriting PBS series 'Women, War & Peace' beginning Oct. 11

Posted 10/7/11

The three North Country AAUW branches are underwriting the presentation by WPBS-TV in Watertown of the five-part series “Women, War & Peace” that starts on Tuesday, Oct 11 at 10 p.m. The …

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Three area AAUW branches underwriting PBS series 'Women, War & Peace' beginning Oct. 11

Posted

The three North Country AAUW branches are underwriting the presentation by WPBS-TV in Watertown of the five-part series “Women, War & Peace” that starts on Tuesday, Oct 11 at 10 p.m.

The series will be introduced with a special live event at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, which is coincidentally the birthday of Eleanor Roosevelt. The iconic First Lady was perhaps best remembered for her work as a United Nations delegate who played a major role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The “Women at the Front” panel will discuss what it is like to be a woman in today’s highly competitive professional world. Jefferson County AAUW member Andrea Pedrick hosts the live program, with panelists Dr. Carole A. McCoy, President, Jefferson Community College; Dr. Ana Y. Estevez, Associate Professor of Biology and Psychology, St. Lawrence University; Judy L. Getner, former Deputy to the Garrison Commander at Fort Drum; and Retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Canadian Forces, Karen McCrimmon. North Country AAUW members will be in the studio audience.

At 10 p.m., the first segment of The Women, War & Peace series, “I Came to Testify” is the moving story of how a group of 16 women who had been imprisoned and raped by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foca broke history’s great silence and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law. Their courage resulted in a verdict that led to new international laws about sexual violence in war. Matt Damon, who narrates the film, has taped a behind-the-scenes-video on why the themes of this series matter to men, too.

On Tuesday, Oct. 18, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” is the story of Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war and won peace for their country in 2003. Among the women featured is Leymah Gbowee, the leader of the Liberian women's peace movement.

The third segment airs Tuesday, Oct. 25. When the U.S. troop surge was announced in late 2009, women in Afghanistan knew that the ground was being laid for peace talks with the Taliban. “Peace Unveiled” follows three women in Afghanistan who are risking their lives to make sure that women have a seat at the negotiating table. Tilda Swinton narrates.

On Tuesday, Nov. 1, “The War We Are Living” travels to Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia's Pacific southwest, where two Afro-Colombian women are fighting to stay on their gold-rich lands. They are standing up for a generation of Colombians who have been terrorized and forcibly displaced as a deliberate strategy of war. Alfre Woodard narrates.

“War Redefined,” on Tuesday, Nov. 8, challenges the notion that war and peace are the domain of men through interviews with leaders and seasoned survivors of war and peacemaking. The interviewees include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and both her female predecessors, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice; Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee; Bosnian war crimes investigator Fadila Memisevic; and globalization expert Moises Naim. Geena Davis narrates.

The Jefferson County, St. Lawrence County, and High Peaks-NCCC AAUW branches are underwriting the Women, Wear and Peace series locally to promote a greater understanding of these issues and to show places where women have overcome tremendous obstacles to promote and find peace in the midst of war.

To learn more, go to http://www.northcountryaauw.org/ or contact AAUW-District 7 coordinator Jennifer Ball at jball@clarkson.edu.