Eve Tetaz, stalwart human-rights activist, dies at 91

washingtonpost.com
Eve Tetaz, stalwart human-rights activist, dies at 91
The retired educator was arrested so often that police and judges knew her by her first name.

Eve Tetaz, stalwart human-rights activist, dies at 91

The retired Washington educator was arrested so often that police and judges knew her by her first name

By Louie Estrada
June 10, 2023 at 6:39 p.m. EDT



Eve Tetaz is led away after being arrested by U.S. Park Police during a demonstration at the northwest gate of the White House in 2006. (Robert A. Reeder/The Washington Post)

Eve Tetaz, a retired Washington educator who joined rights groups at demonstrations into her 80s, facing arrest about 20 times while protesting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the detentions at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, died June 7 at an assisted-living center in Washington. She was 91. ... Ms. Tetaz had dementia, her sister Ann Barnet said.

Ms. Tetaz was taken into custody so often — once while wearing an orange prison jumpsuit in front of the White House — that police and judges came to know her by her first name. With her crown of white hair, she was a distinctive presence at many protests and marches in the District.

Ms. Tetaz said she was drawn to religious traditions emphasizing social justice, which inspired generations of protesters, including antiwar marches beginning in the Vietnam era. In an article in the bulletin of Washington’s Church of the Saviour, she wrote that she felt a deep empathy for society’s outcasts, even as a small child. ... “I believe that nonviolent protest against government policies will continue to be the only authentic form of individual political action,” Ms. Tetaz read from a statement during a sentencing hearing in D.C. Superior Court in 2010.

As the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on, Ms. Tetaz joined organizations including the women’s group Code Pink, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and Witness Against Torture. ... She joined rallies calling for an end to the wars and decrying the treatment of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. She also took part in demonstrations denouncing the death penalty and U.S. military policies. ... She participated in nonviolent civil resistance demonstrations on Capitol Hill and in front of the Supreme Court and White House from 2006 to 2013.

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