US-based Maura Stephens has been a professional journalist and editor since 1977. A longtime peace, human and environmental rights activist, she is currently editor of ICQ magazine and a freelance writer. She specialises in public policy, media reform, dominionism in US government, and humanitarian concerns. She is a member of the Iraq Speakers Bureau, having travelled to that country on several investigative and humanitarian missions.

With her husband, George Sapio, she coauthored a book, Collateral Damage, on the people of Iraq before the 2003 invasion. She has written extensively and given scores of presentations on Iraq, and is also on the speakers bureau for TheocracyWatch, a US-based organisation that tracks the radical religious right in US politics. She is the US spokesperson for the International Campaign for Freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma. Stephens is also an educator, actor and theatre professional.

Recent articles

A booming economy is no cause for complacency – now more than ever Ireland must look after its natural and material wealth, its citizens and its democracy, argues Maura Stephens.

Wealthy now after decades of hardship, Ireland seems to have what most countries dream of. But Maura Stephens, measuring the changes she has seen over many visits to the land of her forbears, has a warning for the envious.

Bereaved parents around the world face the greatest grief known to our species. Nothing can diminish their loss, but Maura Stephens suggests that perhaps there are some healing ways to channel it.

At the end of a year of tragedies, from Banda Aceh to Kashmir via New Orleans, Maura Stephens says it’s important to hear the message buried by the ring of shopping tills.

Or at least a start toward peace. Now, if only Bush would pay attention.