War stories continue to unfold long after
the shooting has
stopped. The survivors are left to carry on among
the material and
psychological debris, while a willed forgetfulness
settles over the
international press. The part of the story with
which we might most
easily identify - the struggle to make sense of
everyday life - never
makes the news. Have the limits of empathy been
reached? Do we need
the graphic depictions of horror to keep us safe?
When the people
begin to look like our neighbors and ourselves we
turn away.
The civilians, mostly women and children,
who suffer the
direct consequences of armed struggle have no such
choice. In former
Yugoslavia feminist women's groups got involved out
of conscience,
compassion and outrage as war and nationalism turned
their one
country into five, with perhaps a sixth to follow.
Governments often
act as if war is inevitable. Men will fight, women
will cry.
Feminism, as Vesna Kesic has said, implies optimism,
the possibility
of change. Great sorrow can be transformed into
psychic depth. As
these women's groups worked against the wars -
protesting, lobbying,
analyzing, writing, providing support for each other
and the
dispossessed without regard for ethnicity - they
created a base for
women's rights initiatives in civil society,
beginning the work of
reconciliation despite conflict.
This is true heroism. If you look
closely, it is visible
in their faces.
LK
Lisa Kahane | photographer | 32 West 20 Street | New
York NY 10011 |
212.242.6496
EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION: November 18, 2005. 6-8
p.m.
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