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“No” is a powerful word. Two little letters, one short syllable, have the potential to change the world. Look at a toddler who has just learned to say “No”—she is fierce with the word, gleaming, and triumphant. The word “No” gives her control over her own small universe, and she wields it freely, joyously, defiantly.

As many girls grew up, however, they lost the word “No.” They learned to forget its power, forget they ever owned it. Throughout history, women have often been taught to say "No" to themselves, to stay quiet, complacent, to unquestionably accept what fate and society offer them, even if this means arranged marriage or female genital mutilation, or other forms of physical and emotional abuse. Women were often led to believe that their bodies, their lives, were not their own.

Thankfully, women have steadily been reclaiming the word “No,” both personally and politically. Where would we be if Rosa Parks didn't say “No” when she was asked to give up her seat? Where would we be if women in Afghanistan didn't start underground schools to say “No” to the denial of education for girls and women? Where would we be if women didn't say “No” to unfair wage discrepancies, to pollution of their neighborhoods, to discriminatory voting practices, and to laws giving them no reproductive choices? Of course we still have a long way to go on all of these fronts, but if no woman ever rose up and said “No” to injustice, the situation for women would be a lot grimmer. Voting booths and board rooms and Planned Parenthood clinics would still be off-limits to us without that simple, powerful two-letter word.

And, throughout history, many women have also had the courage to say “No” to war. In fact, the first known poem, “Lament to the Spirit of War,” was a protest written by a Sumerian priestess, Enheduanna, around 2300 BCE. When women say “No” to war, we are saying “Yes” to so much—“Yes” to compassion, “Yes” to justice, “Yes” to safety, “Yes” to a peaceful and sustainable future.

Through the efforts of organizations like CODEPINK, women around the world have a way to collectively say “No” to war. As the call at www.womensaynotowar.org states, “this is not the world we want for ourselves or our children. With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are rising up—across borders—to unite and demand an end to the bloodshed and the destruction.”

Find more ideas on how to take action for peace in CODEPINK's Resource Toolbox.

Think of the sound of thousands upon thousands of women—and supportive men—rising up and saying “No” together. That open syllable would fill the air, a beautiful chorus. By the time International Women's Day rolls around on March 8, we should be able to shake the roof right off the White House with our voices.

We must recapture our original joyous, defiant experience of the word “No,” and bolster it with a healthy “Yes” that will resound through the ages, ringing in our great-grandchildren's ears. Gayle Brandeis Author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write and The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel, which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change. She is a proud and active member of CODEPINK.

© CODEPINK: Women for Peace

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