WOMEN IN BLACK

We are here at the United Nations today in solidarity with all people seeking peaceful solutions to disputes at interpersonal, intercommunity and international levels.
We mourn all people who have suffered and died because communities and nations cannot find peaceable solutions to disputes.

We mourn women the world over who have been imprisoned, tortured and killed for their activism in behalf of peace and women’s human rights.

We honor the leadership, struggle and transformation of women who insist on direct involvement in building peace.

WAR EXACERBATES THE PANDEMIC OF VIOLENCE EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN AND GIRLS EVERYWHERE

Any “peace” that does not address ongoing violence against women is not Peace.

WE URGE ALL MEMBERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS TO ASSURE THAT WOMEN ARE INVOLVED IN ALL PEACE DELIBERATIONS

We must find peace and end violence against women.

NO WAR WITHOUT END OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR

The Women in Black Art Project is a feminist cultural activism project that seeks to enhance the visualization and building of peace. Violence in all its forms, including war, affects women and their children disproportionately. We stand in solidarity with all people who are seeking peaceful solutions to disputes at interpersonal, inter-community and international levels, especially in situations where women and girls’ lives and prospects are at risk. The Women in Black Art Project should not be construed as supporting any policy or practice of any individual country or political entity.

The Women in Black Art Project is joined today by Women in Black groups from several states, as well as members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and their children. We welcome everyone’s participation.

The costumes you see here are developed on three themes: Struggle, Transformation and Leadership. The number three is symbolic, as it refers to the equilateral triangle, an ancient emblem for “woman,” and also a symbol of equality. The heavily layered garments represent the heavy burdens women must carry with grace and pride as they struggle against oppression, injustice and inequality, and seek peace and an end to violence against women and girls, a violence that is exacerbated by war and other conflicts. The costumes include veils as a reference to traditional mourning garb in many cultures, and as an emblem of the anonymity of women within all peace movements, and their absence from official peace negotiations.

The Leadership costume honors the worldwide movement Women in Black, active for peace in 30 countries worldwide. The costume is layered with images of Women in Black vigils for peace dating to 1988. Its skirt is inscribed with this poem: “When every woman in the world insists on freedom; When every woman in the world dreams a sweet dream of peace; When every woman in the world, of every nation, every generation, joins hands in the name of Love, there will be no more War.”

The Struggle Costume honors women the world over who have been imprisoned, tortured or killed for their activism, and is layered with images of these women, from every continent. The back and front of the costume are painted with peace symbols, done in graffiti style and heavily distressed. The peace symbols are split in two to indicate the divisions in the peace movements, and the invisibility of women in them, despite women’s key leadership. The skirt hem is quilted with images of stones, emblematic both of the torture experienced by women who struggle against oppression, and of the strength needed to do so.

The Transformation costume refers to the ancient myth of the Phonix, a resplendent bird that rises from the fire and ashes of its destruction. The costume is layered with images of the treatment afforded Afghan women under fundamentalist rule, and under decades of war and destruction of their homeland. The focus of this costume on Afghan women represents the solidarity women the world over have with them, as well as awareness that the repression and violence that continue to be experienced by Afghan women are also experienced by millions of women worldwide. A poem, in Dari, by Meena, the founder of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), who was assasinated in 1987, is inscribed on pockets on the train of the skirt. Translations of the poem in English are contained in the pockets along with newspaper and magazine articles about the courage of Afghan women in overcoming repression and building peace.

For information on how to support the Women in Black Art Project, or to have the costumes visit your city or town, please contact Mary Jo Aagerstoun at mjaag@wam.umd.edu.

WE OPPOSE WAR WITHOUT END
WE CALL FOR WOMEN’S INVOLVEMENT IN ALL PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR

Please join us for weekly silent vigils in front of the New York Public Library, 5th Avenue at 41st St to remember those lost to terrorism in the last week.

WOMEN IN BLACK

Women In Black New York stand in silent vigil to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world. We are silent because mere words cannot express the tragedy that wars and hatred bring. We refuse to add to the cacophony of empty statements that are spoken with the best intentions yet may be erased or go unheard under the sound of a passing ambulance or a bomb exploding nearby.

Our silence is visible. We invite women to stand with us, reflect about themselves and women who have been raped, tortured or killed in concentration camps, women who have disappeared, whose loved ones have disappeared or have been killed, whose homes have been demolished. We wear black as a symbol to mourn for all victims of war, to mourn the destruction of people, nature and the fabric of life.

Women in Black is an international peace network. Women in Black is not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action. Women in Black vigils were started in Israel in 1988 by women protesting against Israelžs Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Women in Black has developed in the Italy, Spain, United States, England, Azerbaijan and in FR Yugoslavia, where women in Belgrade have stood in weekly vigils since 1991 to protest war and the Serbian regimežs policies of nationalist aggression. Women in Black New York have been standing in solidarity with the women of Belgrade since 1993.

We stand in silent vigil in front of the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 41st Street every Wednesday from 5:30 - 6:30. Come join us.

For information, please visit our website at http://balkansnet.org/women
Tel: Indira at 212 560-0905.
E-mail: 074182@newschool.edu to get on our mailing list.
Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 20554, New York, NY 10021, and should be made payable to RACCOON, Inc., with WIB in the memo line.
See also http://wib.matriz.net.