International Women's Day falls on 8th March each year. To mark it, we gathered the stories of seven women peacebuilders from our global network.
Name: Abigail Sumption
Location: London, UK
Religion: Christian
Programme: Emerging Peacemakers Forum 2018
"I am Abigail and I am a reconciler. I hold a master’s in Peacebuilding and Reconciliation. I am currently a trustee for Cord, a Christian peacebuilding charity, alongside my day-to-day work with International Justice Mission UK, and I am a proud alumna of the Emerging Peacemakers Forum with Rose Castle. I live in London and enjoy cycling, sustainable fashion and anything social justice related! (Plus - my birthday is the day before International Women’s Day, so I feel particularly honoured to write for Rose Castle this week!)"
I have always known ‘home’ to be a moving type of thing. As a child, I grew up abroad, in warm and transitory environments. As an expatriate family living in Rome, cross-cultural difference was our bread and butter (or our focaccia and olive oil). I was used to navigating in overlapping circles in my international school and church, with friends who were Sudanese, Seychellois, Albanian or Chinese - very rarely plain English like me. This multi-cultural environment was a petri-dish fermenting deep beliefs in me: a passion for harmony amidst cultural differences, and a strong conviction that there was always more to learn, especially from people who were unlike me.
In my penultimate year at school, I met Hajar1: a kind-hearted Kurdish-Iraqi, Muslim girl with whom I’ve been best friends with ever since. It might sound like an unlikely pair: a Muslim and a Christian. However, our unique faiths were intrinsic to our identities, and a shared belief in Someone Greater connected us far more than it threatened to tear us apart. Through my friendship with Hajar, I learnt more about Muslimhood. I admired the reverence of scripture, the commitment to prayer, and her lived-out kindness: the outworking of a deeply rooted faith. I came to recognise that these character traits were not unique to Christians but could be reflected just as powerfully in other believers: in Muslims, Jews, and Christians (or ‘People of the Book’ as we are sometimes called). This sparked my interest in interfaith friendships, and their power to heal across divides.
In my life and in my studies, I have always sought to embrace diversity, and build bridges with cultures different to my own. At University, I decided to pursue Modern Languages and Cultures, because I reasoned that learning about a people through their language, seemed a fine way to do just that. I chose to study Italian - the country I had lived in for 11 years as a child, Spanish - where I had spent my Latin American gap year, and Arabic - a language and culture which had intrigued me ever since I met Hajar and her family.
Growing up in an ex-pat community, inter-cultural relationships were second-nature, and I had known their profound worth. However, when I moved to England for the first time, to go to Durham University, I struggled to find my place in a city that seemed, at surface-level, about as culturally homogenous as British cities come. Nevertheless, there were strong diaspora communities and faith groups outside of the student ‘bubble’ and away from the Cathedral-dominated skyline. I joined Durham’s interfaith society - a fantastic combination of a Muslim chaplain, some well-travelled lecturers, and several ‘interested and interesting’ students. I attended panel events where Muslims questioned the meanings of words in their Holy Qur’an and found myself identifying with them in the beautiful tension that exists between faith and doubt. I began to wonder whether God was bigger than I thought, and whether interfaith friendships would open a deeper understanding of the Divine. I saw a ‘loving curiosity’ in practice and made my best efforts to emulate it by ‘seeking to understand before seeking to be understood’.
In the summer of 2018, I saw the power of interfaith friendships at work again. I had the utter privilege of being part of the inaugural Emerging Peacemakers’ Forum, with Rose Castle Foundation, Al-Azhar and Cambridge University. I sat around the dinner table with British Muslims and Coptic Christians, and we laughed across our divides; years of stereotypes broken by minutes of shared laughter. After 10 days of getting to know each other deeply through sharing conversations, lectures, and meals, we formed unlikely friendships which could be life-long. Three years since the forum, I have kept up with many of the peacemakers and each joyful reunion feels like the reconvening of a special, scattered family.
Abi (far left) with members of the EPF18 'family'.
The Emerging Peacemakers Forum kindled my interests in reconciliation and peacebuilding, and then set them on fire. In the days after the forum, I could think of nothing more crucial for today’s world than peace: just, sustainable, positive peace in our time. It felt time to delve deeper, so I dedicated a year to a master's degree in the subject of Reconciliation and Peacebuilding at the University of Winchester, one of the only schools which incorporates faith-based elements into the curriculum. I spent hours learning the roots of conflict, discussing locally grounded practices of reconciliation with colleagues in Syria and Myanmar, and learning why women are core to developing inclusive peacebuilding agendas which last. Alas, I discovered that one year was nowhere near enough time for such a vast and meaningful subject. The master’s had positively whetted my appetite for studying reconciliation, but the world of work was calling.
Abi reflects on her time at EPF18.
I have now been working for International Justice Mission for two years now, predominately during the pandemic. It has been both a learning curve and a blessing!.
I started drafting this article in February 2022, at a time when war in Ukraine seemed like an extreme scenario - one nobody really expected would happen. I am finishing writing this in March - at least a week into the horrific conflict. Putin began what many thought inconceivable: the biggest war in Europe since 1945, sparking what is set to be one of the largest refugee crises of the modern era. Putin has invaded Ukraine with a level of military might that stacks the odds against the opposition. War is on Europe's doorstep once again - only time will tell whether the world responds with love towards our new neighbours. A humanitarian crisis is at its core a human crisis. Yet, with crisis always comes opportunity, and it is on us to see the human side – and the human cost of this crisis. Will we respond with solidarity? Will we choose to see every refugee as a person before they are a product of a conflict? Will we do to others what we would have had them do to us?
The crisis in Ukraine has dominated the news cycle for good reason this week, and yet it is not an isolated crisis. Conflicts in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria rage on, Myanmar remains under authoritarian military rule, while Israeli violence and illegal settlements are continued attack on Palestinian freedom. Let us not have double standards. War is war, and we must condemn and prevent war in all its forms, regardless of whether it is happening in Europe or around the world. As Peter Oborne wrote in the Middle East Eye this week2, ‘it is a delight that the United States, Britain, and Europe have rediscovered the importance of international law. The test now is to ensure that it is applied consistently across the globe - and not only in response to Russian aggression inside Europe.’
As believers and reconcilers, we are not called to isolated lives. We are called to be peacemakers and bridge-builders. To love our neighbours as ourselves, whatever that looks like. We must practice these truths wholeheartedly, in word, deed, and prayer. Peacebuilding may feel naive and fickle with the conflict still ablaze in Ukraine, but the purpose of peacebuilding is as vital during conflict as it is before and after. Peacebuilding and reconciliation are processes which are not just for post-conflict societies when the airstrikes have ceased, and the wounds have begun to heal. Peacebuilding is necessary at all stages in a war: before, during, and after violence and conflict. Peacebuilding and reconciliation take many forms, but they must start with truth, and acknowledgement of harm. It may take years for Russian citizens to learn the truth of this war, and for Putin to acknowledge the war crimes he has committed.
Emerging Peacemakers Forum 2018 cohort.
But as peacemakers, let us not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good3. Let us not give up hope that ordinary people like us, can overthrow despots and empires in our pursuit of justice and freedom. And should you need more proof, consider this: ‘one well-known study on civil resistance concluded that it only takes 3.5% of the population to topple a dictator’4. After all, ‘never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’
1Hajar is a Qur’anic name, but the story of Hagar and Sarai appears throughout all three Abrahamic scriptures if slightly differently. When I realised this, I was thrilled; curious to learn just how many other stories we might hold in common.
2Peter Oborne, Middle East Eye, ‘Let's call out the West's bias over Ukraine for what it is - blatant racism.’ 1 March 2022. middleeasteye.net/opinion/russia-ukraine-war-media-bias-west-blatant-racism
3Romans 12: 21.
4Dylan Mathews, Bond, ‘The Tragedy of Ukraine and the Urgency or Peacebuilding’, 1 March 2022. bond.org.uk/news/2022/03/the-tragedy-of-ukraine-and-the-urgency-of-peacebuilding