PUEDES VER ESTA PÁGINA EN ESPAÑOL AQUÍ

Jan Rose Kasmir in the demonstration against the war in Iraq held in London in February 2003. The photo below was taken by Marc Riboud in 1967 which resulted in an iconic moment in the history of the peace movement.

JAN ROSE KASMIR

The Avalon Foundation offered the International Peace Award 2010 to a woman whose name is practically unknown, although her image as a pacifist has been known around the world for over 40 years. She is an icon of peace and is a symbol of the collective human unconscious against war and violence.

For 30 years, her name has remained almost anonymous, until a French journalist conducted an investigation to find her and finally her name JAN ROSE KASMIR was known.

The image that leads to her becoming part of the history of the 20th century was taken by the well known French photographer Marc Riboud. The photo was taken during the protest MARCH ON THE PENTAGON in 1967, which was the first major antiwar demonstration in history, in which the youth of the Woodstock generation dared to stand up to the political leadership directing the operations of the Vietnam War to deman their dismissal and return the U.S. troops to their homeland. 

The image of Jan Rose Kasmir has become a historic milestone.

On October 21st 1967 was the first major antiwar demonstration in history, when around 100.000 people headed for the Pentagon in Washington to demand an end to the Vietnam War and the return of U.S. troops home. It was the famous protest MARCH ON THE PENTAGON.

The government of United States had never experienced an on mass protest of this kind and in response to the amount of people that attend the demonstration, the National Guard troops surrounded the Pentagon with an ostensibly defensive attitude. For several hours the demonstrators were in front of the troops, and there were a couple of skirmishes with the intent that the pacifists enter the Pentagon, resulting in a number of injuries and arrests.

Toward the end of the afternoon, the photographer Marc Riboud saw one girl standing inches away from the bayonets of the soldiers.

"It was an extraordinary scene -recalls Riboud-. A 17 years old girl saying, You can crush the flower, but we are brothers, we can talk'. She just talked to them, tried to capture the look of the soldiers, trying to talk to them. I felt that the soldiers were more afraid of her than she of the bayonets", says Riboud.

Riboud approached the scene cautiously, taking photos under the soft, dim light of dusk, with the last reel that was left in his camera. It was three decades after that he would know the name of the girl. However, one of the photos he took (the contrast of the power of the armed forces and an innocent hippie) would soon become a defining image of anti-war and so her images remain a fixture in exhibitions and documentaries on pacifism and her photos are printed regularly.

This girl was JAN ROSE KASMIR...

In February 2003, almost forty years after the March on the Pentagon, she demonstrated for peace against the war in Iraq in London (see photo at the top of the screen).

The Marc Riboud Photos

(Attention: the last one of these photos is unpublished. Explanation in the photo)

We have on sale the first one of these photos in poster format (23.6 x 35.4 inches). Price: 5 € + postage and packing. Marc Riboud himself has kindly given up its rights for this printing. Founds obtained in this way will be entirely devoted to our work for peace. Please write to 

Interview with JAN ROSE KASMIR

Listen the interview which James Kilgarriff made with Jan Rose Kasmir in May 2010. Time: 39 m. 50 s.

English transcription in pdf format. Click here.

International Peace Award 2010

to

JAN ROSE KASMIR

 In recognition of her commitment to working for peace anonymously throughout her life, and her courage and determination, this has made her an icon of pacifism for millions of people who anonymously work for peace in the world.