FARMINGTON – In California on Monday, Jodie Evans was starting to feel the weakness in her lower extremities, more than three weeks after her last meal.
She and about 25 others are taking part in a hunger strike aimed at bringing American soldiers home from Iraq, and this Friday and Saturday members of Women in Black, a group of local peace activists, plan to fast in solidarity with Evans’ group for 24 hours.
More than 4,000 other anti-war activists in the United States, Europe and Canada have also signed on for fasts lasting a day or longer in solidarity with CodePink, which Evans helped found.
“I just felt called to do something to participate in the – I can’t say suffering because one day’s not suffering – but to do some small thing in support of the people who are truly suffering,” said Farmington Women in Black member Joan Braun of Friday’s fast.
“I think this was the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place,” Braun said Monday. “And, as a parent, to spend a lifetime from pregnancy to birth to infancy raising a child and then having them destroyed,” she said, “it’s just a waste.”
The Farmington group plans to meet at noon Friday in front of the Farmington Post Office for a regularly scheduled anti-war protest.
Around 12:30 p.m. they plan to move to Meetinghouse Park, where they’ll have one last meal before they begin their fast.
Braun said Monday that anyone who wants to is invited to take part in the meal and the following fast, but warned potential participants to do it carefully.
“This is not meant in any way to injure yourself. Be circumspect, do what’s right for you as an individual,” she said.
For Evans, the 21 days she’s so far gone without food have been made much easier than she expected because of her commitment to her cause.
“It’s just a way in the midst of frustration and disappointment, and just the sheer grief, to raise the bar and say, you know, in kind of the utmost non-violent method possible, we must wake up, violence is not the answer,” Evans said by telephone Monday.
The fast may even bolster spirits in Iraq, said Iraqi Raed Jarrar, a project director for Global Exchange in Washington, D.C. Jarrar fasted with Evans and the others for the first eight days.
“I feel very proud I am taking a part of this fast, because I think supporting nonviolent resistance is one of the key factors for reducing the level of violence in Iraq,” he said in a phone interview Monday.
Jarrar said he did peace work in Iraq, was kidnapped and ultimately had to move away when the security situation deteriorated. He said in the past when Iraqis have tried nonviolent measures, they were ignored. Now, he said, people who fast in the United States and those who might join them in Iraq have lots of people on their side.
“We represent a majority of both Americans and Iraqis in their demands in ending this war,” he said.
He was in the middle of putting together an advertisement about the fast, among other things, to go in an Iraqi newspaper today. Knowing Americans are fasting on their behalf will mean something to those in Iraq, Jarrar said.
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