Multimedia Collection

Peace Train to Beijing

VHS
30 minutes
HQ1236 .P41 1995

Tells the story of 230 women and 10 men from 42 nations who traveled across two continents from Helsinki, Finland to Beijing, China on a Peace Train sponsored by Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, (WILPF), an international women's peace group. During the three-week trek across Europe and Asia to the NGO Forum on Women in Beijing, the participants met with women from areas in economic and social transition, and from countries either in conflict or bordering regions in conflict.

Women reveal their personal hopes and fears both on the train and the streets and market-places of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Kazakhstan. With women's groups from these cities they discuss: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the impact of rising religious fundamentalism on women, the war in former Yugoslavia, violence against women, peace and democracy in multi-ethnic societies, and the changing economic status of women in Eastern Europe and around the world. The video also documents the stress and strains of creating a "metaphorical community" during the intense three week journey.

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Women's Studies

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