Two Area Women Headed to Iraq With Peace Group
Delegation to Tour '91 Bombing Site

By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 31, 2003; Page B03

A District documentary filmmaker and a Virginia conservationist joined a delegation of peace activists yesterday to head to Iraq on an eight-day mission to show solidarity with Iraqi families and to oppose any U.S. military strike.

"I think it's my responsibility as an American citizen to go and see who we are aiming our missiles at in this unjustified aggression," Gael Murphy, 48, of the District, said after a news conference yesterday at the Washington offices of the National Organization for Women.

Murphy and Elaine Broadhead of Middleburg are part of a group of a dozen U.S. women -- lawyers, businesswomen, artists and activists from California, Texas, New York and the Washington area -- who boarded flights separately yesterday for Amman, Jordan. From Amman, where they plan to meet tomorrow, they are scheduled to embark on a 12-hour drive to Iraq.

The women have scheduled visits to a children's hospital, an orphanage and the Amiriya shelter in Baghdad, the site of a bombing during the 1991 Persian Gulf War where trip organizers allege more than 400 civilians were killed. The group plans to join women traveling to Iraq from Europe, Australia and other places, and hopes to meet with United Nations weapons inspectors and tour an oil refinery, organizers said.

"We really think that war is a women's issue, and that women's organizations in the U.S. and around the world should be at the forefront of opposing a war," said Medea Benjamin, 50, co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink: Women for Peace, both of which sponsored the trip.

The delegation has no intention of meeting with Iraqi government officials and views any U.S. restrictions on civilian travel to Iraq as unconstitutional. Members scoffed at critics who might brand them as unpatriotic. "I have never felt more patriotic in my life," Murphy said. "I feel like I'm standing up for American values about justice and fairness and peace."

The trip is an extension of the Code Pink peace vigils the group has held at Lafayette Square daily since November, Benjamin said. "It was my feeling that we have this vigil going on in front of the White House, and perhaps it was important to show Iraqi women how committed we are to stopping this war," said Benjamin, who boarded a 6 p.m. flight at Reagan National Airport with Murphy and Broadhead. They are due to return Feb. 10.

Benjamin, a San Francisco mother of two, said none of the women came to the decision lightly to enter a country on the brink of war. Murphy discussed the trip with her partner, her mother and other family members and friends. "They're concerned," she said, "but they're supportive."