Renowned writers Alice Walker, author of

??The Color Purple, and Maxine Hong Kinston, author of The Woman Warrior, and over 20 other women were arrested in Washington, D.C. on Saturday.

The women were among thousands of women who marched on Washington on International Women’s Day, protesting the Bush administration’s plans to invade Iraq.

The protest was organized by a new group called Code Pink, a play on the Bush administration’s color-coded system of terror alerts.

Also arrested were magazine publisher Nina Utne, authors Terry Tempest Williams and Susan Griffin, CodePink Co-founder Medea Benjamin, Rev. Patricia Ackerman and musician Rachel Bagby.

• Gloria Johnson, Coalition of Labor Union Women.
• Nancy Lessin, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, her stepson is a 25-year-old Marine who is currently stationed in the Gulf region and being prepared for the battle.
• Hafsat Abiola, Nigerian human rights advocate. Her mother, Kudirat Abiola, was assassinated by the military regime in June 1996. Hafsat’s father, President-elect Moshood Abiola, was imprisoned in 1993. Just prior to release from prison in 1998 he died of a heart attack.

Related links:

• Coalition of Labor Union Women
• Military Families Speak Out