Celebrating 29 Years: Women’s Federation for World Peace

“Women have the magical power to create harmony and to soften hearts,” wrote Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon in her bestselling memoir Mother of Peace (2020). 

With that power, Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) celebrates its 29th anniversary this year, co-founded by Dr. Moon and her late husband Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon on April 10, 1992. At the time, they also held a joint celebration of the Seoul Rally of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia, where 160,000 women from 70 countries came together at the Olympic Stadium in South Korea.

“That day marked the beginning of the great footsteps of tremendous significance in the world history of women,” said Dr. Moon during WFWP’s 20th anniversary celebration in Japan in 2012. “This was because it was the point of global transition through which the main role of developing and leading history was handed over from men to women… WFWP is not a movement for women alone, but rather the movement of bringing together ideal families to establish ideal nations and ultimately an ideal world.”

Dr. Moon shares the profound vision of true womanhood and the new age that centers on womanhood in Chapter 8 of her memoir. She emphasizes the importance of WFWP—an NGO selected by the United Nations for consultative status—and its range of peacebuilding activities worldwide, calling women who fulfill their dual mission as a wife and mother  “essential to create a peaceful and just world.” 

In her memoir, Dr. Moon also traces the inception of the Women’s Federation back to 1991, where during a gathering of 7,000 women in Chiba, Japan, she gave a speech which “provided a compass to guide humankind out of the world of war, violence and conflict and into the ideal world of one human family led by men and women in harmony, overflowing with peace and love.” 

Dr. Moon further highlights the significant mission of women individually within WFWP.

“Until now, neither men nor women have known the true value of womanhood,” she wrote in her memoir. “As a result, men have not approached women with authentic appreciation. To break that mold, women in modern times have campaigned to advance their rights and achieve liberation from past restrictions. They have, for the most part, taken a position of complaints against men and channeled their energy into political movements to change laws. With a different perspective, I launched the Women’s Federation for World Peaceas a movement to awaken women to their true value and help them embrace men and develop themselves in partnership with men.”

“To be a clear mirror that reflects this age, each woman first needs to be clear and pure within herself. Each needs to find the indomitable power within that is necessary to overcome self-centeredness. She needs to become a true daughter who attends her parents with filial piety, and a true wife who completes her husband with fidelity and devotion. Moreover, she needs to become a true mother who raises her sons and daughters with love and dedication. She needs to form a family of true love that attends God. God will raise up such true women as leaders on the path to world peace.”

In the months that followed WFWP’s inauguration, Dr. Moon embarked on a world tour to encourage women leaders and “launch a true women’s movement that could win the hearts of both men and women.” She met with leaders from all walks of life and held numerous women’s conferences worldwide.

Today, WFWP has a thriving international presence on six continents and more than 30 chapters across the U.S. Impactful projects like the Global Women’s Peace Network and Bridge of Peace unite women leaders from all backgrounds around the world in partnerships for peace while sharing “tools necessary for citizenship in a culture of peace.” WFWP International President Julia Moon, a philanthropist and daughter of the founders, leads the global organization with the personal motto, “I am because we are.”

Let’s celebrate the great success of WFWP and the incredible achievement of Dr. and Rev. Moon.

You can learn more about WFWP International here, and WFWP USA here.

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