International Women’s Day: the women of the Peace Tax Seven

International Women’s Day is a chance to recognise women who show courage, leadership and integrity, even when doing so comes at a personal cost.

For us at Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War, the Peace Tax Seven are a striking example: seven UK taxpayers who united around a shared goal of pursuing the legal right to conscientious objection to military taxation, and to argue for a peaceful alternative.

Their case was not about avoiding tax. It was about paying in full, while asking for a lawful

alternative: the military portion of their tax redirected into a ring-fenced Peace Fund for

peaceful purposes such as healthcare, education, international development and non-

violent conflict resolution.

Among the Seven were three women of immense courage. Their stories show how wide the

case for peace taxation really is, across faiths, professions and life experience: Brenda

Boughton, Dr Birgit Völlm, and Sian Cwper.

Brenda Boughton: faith, truth-telling, and stubborn courage

Brenda Boughton was a teacher of English and adult literacy in Oxford. Rooted in Christian

pacifism and the hard lessons of the twentieth century, she wrote of living through the

Second World War and “the shadow” of the First, and her conviction that people must learn

to care for one another rather than pursue violent ends.

From 1988, Brenda began calculating and reserving the proportion of income tax she

believed supported nuclear weapons. From 1991 she withheld an estimated 7–10% linked

to wider military spending and donated the equivalent to Oxfam.

She also experienced the blunt force of state: after court hearings, money was taken directly

from her bank account by “garnishee” order. It meant, as she noted, the amount demanded

could effectively be paid twice.

Brenda also insisted on moral clarity. She argued that changing institutional names does not

change realities, and asked how we can talk of loving our neighbour while planning to kill

them. She joined the Peace Tax Seven in 2004 and remained committed until sadly passing

away in 2012.

Dr Birgit Völlm: professional ethics and human rights

Dr Birgit Völlm is a psychiatrist and university lecturer in forensic psychiatry, previously

based at The University of Manchester. Her case began with the ethical core of medicine:

she chose her profession “to help people and to alleviate suffering,” and argued that

funding weapons that kill is incompatible with those values.

In 2003 Birgit joined Conscience and, when asked for a balancing payment by Inland

Revenue, wrote a cheque to the Department for International Development instead. She

subsequently faced a hearing at Manchester City Magistrates’ Court and was later told a

judicial review was the only legal route, leading her to join the Peace Tax Seven in 2004.

Her story underlines a wider point the Seven made: in modern warfare, what governments

need from civilians is not mass conscription but money, raised through compulsory taxation.

Conscience matters here too, because compelled financial support can be used to fuel war

and violence.

Sian Cwper: compassion in practice

Sian Cwper, a mother of two and a Mahayana Buddhist, expressed the issue with direct

simplicity: she refused to be responsible for people being killed by paying for arms and

wanted her taxes to go towards “something beneficial.” For Sian, Buddhist practice is about

benefiting all sentient beings, while funding violence is the opposite.

Sian calculated and reserved the military proportion of her income tax at 10%, faced a

county court summons in early 2004, and submitted a defence, before joining the Peace Tax

Seven’s judicial review effort.

Why these women matter

These three stories are different in tone and tradition, but converge on one principle: people should not be compelled to fund war and bloodshed, in violation of their conscience.

The Peace Tax Seven described the dilemma clearly: either pay and become complicit, or follow conscience and risk court action.

On International Women’s Day, Brenda, Birgit and Sian remind us that progress can look like

persistence: the repeated decision to choose peace, to face pressure, and to keep arguing

for a practical alternative, so conscientious objectors can contribute fully to society without

being forced to bankroll war.

find out more about the Peace Tax Seven