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Remembering Krishna Ahooja-Patel

On the 27 December 2018, Krishna Ahooja-Patel, lawyer, lifetime member and a true peace activist of WILPF passed away after a short illness in a retirement home outside Ottawa, Canada, where she had been living the last years.

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  • 2 min
WILPF International Secretariat
28 January 2019

“Women are half of the worlds’ population, do two-thirds of the work, get one-tenth of the income, and are the owners of one per cent of the property.”

On the 27 December 2018, Krishna Ahooja-Patel, lawyer, lifetime member and a true peace activist of WILPF passed away after a short illness in a retirement home outside Ottawa, Canada, where she had been living the last years.

Krishna Ahooja-Patel, influenced very early in her life by Gandhian ideals, was a tireless advocate of peace, social justice, and women’s empowerment. Her education and training in law prepared her for a 25-year-long career with the UN, where she worked in various capacities around the world, hereunder with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the UN Institute of Research and Training for the Advancement of Women (Instraw), and the Women’s World Summit.

From 2001 – 2004, she served as president of WILPF. She was a stalwart of WILPF, represented the organisation in Geneva at the UN and was particularly engaged with the ILO where we were fortunate to benefit from her enormous experience. Luckily for WILPF, she was tough in arguing her positions on human rights and peace, and fearless in engaging with ambassadors, UN officials whomever she needed to debate with in order to persuade them to act with decency and integrity.

In 1995, she traveled with a “peace train” organised by the WILPF to the UN Women’s Conference in Beijing. It was Krishna who came up with the startling and now-famous UN statistic about women: “Women are half of the world’s population, do two-thirds of the work, get one-tenth of the income, and are owners of one per cent of the property.”  

One of her key issues, was to have the UN Security Council’s resolution 1325 translated into as many languages as possible, in order to spread it worldwide to ensure concerted pressure on the Security Council for its implementation. The resolution reaffirms the important role of women in prevention and resolution of conflicts, and in peace-building processes.

Krishna’s involvement with feminist issues and peace initiatives has placed her at the forefront of national and international movements.

If you would like to share a moment you had with Krishna, you are welcome to use the comment field under this post on our facebook page.

Rest in peace.

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WILPF International Secretariat

WILPF International Secretariat, with offices in Geneva and New York, liaises with the International Board and the National Sections and Groups for the implementation of WILPF International Programme, resolutions and policies as adopted by the International Congress. Under the direction of the Secretary-General, the Secretariat also provides support in areas of advocacy, communications, and financial operations.

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Melissa Torres

VICE-PRESIDENT

Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.

Jamila Afghani

VICE-PRESIDENT

Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.

Sylvie Jacqueline Ndongmo

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Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.

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In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region. 

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Demilitarisation

WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.

Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.

Militarised masculinity

Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.

WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.

Feminist peace​

In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.

In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.

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