Barbara Bick

A longtime peace and human rights activist, BARBARA BICK worked for Women Strike for Peace, NEGAR-Support for Women of Afghanistan, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Institute of Women's Policy Research, and the National Conference of State and Local Public Policies. She is the author of Culture and Politics and Walking the Precipice.

Having struggled valiantly with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Barbara died in April 2009. Despite severe physical restrictions, she maintained her involvement in the many causes that had been central to her life, particularly peace and feminism, and managed even when she was extremely ill to participate in every aspect of her book's publication. Walking the Precipice is based on Barbara's three momentous trips to Afghanistan to learn about and work with women there. Her first trip was in 1990, as part of a women's delegation, and she saw it as a lark, her last great adventure before retiring into old age at 65. But the exact opposite happened: Barbara became ardently involved with Afghanistan, and her horror at the treatment of women under the Taliban pushed her into renewed activism and a return trip when she was 76. That visit ended when the military leader of the Northern Alliance—the main Afghan opposition to the Taliban—was assassinated at the compound where Bick was a guest. The assassins were Al Qaeda operatives, sent to throw the opposition into disarray before the September 11 attacks on the US. Barbara returned one last time for the jubilant women's constitutional conference held in 2003, during which women from all walks of Afghan life came together to develop and present their goals for women's rights in the new Afghan constitution. Barbara's book was hailed in a starred review by Publisher's Weekly as an “enthralling memoir . . . and comprehensive political history.” Barbara was a valiant, passionate, committed feminist and peace activist all of her long, rich life.

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  • Walking the Precipice
  • Barbara Bick