Women in Black Vigils

Women in Black is a world wide movement with women and men gathering to protest violence. Participants wear black or Women in Black buttons, light candles and keep a 10 to 60 minute silent vigil remembering the women and children who are suffering from domestic abuse or societal or war violence. Sometimes posters are carried with messages, sometimes position papers are distributed or press conferences held about the issues prior to the silent vigil.

Men are always welcome; at times these events are called Thursdays in Black to encourage men to participate.

Methodist women created a button that says:

"Thursdays in Black demanding a world without rape and violence."

The purpose of these vigils is to build awareness of world violence, to support peace efforts, to send energy to those who are suffering and to encourage actions that support these goals. This movement has grown out of the vigils held by the Los Madres, the Argentinean and Central American mothers who stood mourning their "disappeared ones". Women protesting war, rape and violence in Bosnia held weekly vigils in their central squares and named their protest movement, Women In Black. The vigils have since spread world wide, accelerated by the 1995 UN Women's Conference where thousands of women participated in a Women in Black Vigil.

Minnesota Women in Black Vigils

St. Paul, Minnesota

Metropolitan State University, St. Paul Campus
Great Hall, New Main
700 E. Seventh St.
Coordinated by the Metropolitan State University Women's Commission.
For more information, call 651-793-1545 (voice) or 651-772-7687 (TDD)

Hamline University
Contact Hamline Women's Center for location.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Winter -- Skyways

Hennepin County Government Center
300 South 6th Street
Skyway level: Starting at the "Phoenic Rising" statue, walking a route through the skyways and returning to statue.

Summer -- Peavy Plaza

For more information, call the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at 645-3045 or send email.

St Cloud, Minnesota

St Cloud State University
Contact the SCSU Women's Center.

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The Minnesota Metropolitan Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is organizing community wide Women In Black groups. Call WILPF 645-3045 for information on Focus groups.

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The following text is from a brochure circulated at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, prepared by Vimochana and the Asian Women's Human Rights Council.

It has been made available to us by Terri Hawthorne of WILPF.

WOMEN IN BLACK

A spontaneous worldwide grassroots movement

Black is the color that we wear;
Black, the color that speaks our anger.

Silence is the language that we speak;
Silence, a language that voices our anguish.

Women in Black say no to all forms of violence.

We are the Women in Black, a movement that has inspired groups of women in different parts of the world to stand in their own towns and cities, at street corners, in market places or squares, and other public places - for one hour every week - dressed in black, silently protesting the many forms of violence which are increasingly becoming intrinsic to everyday realities in our different cultures and communities.

Everywhere women are breaking the silence; women are naming the violence. Women are making public the many forms of "personal" violence against women. The issues have been many. The form in which the protests have been expressed also vary silence, posters, placards, pamphlets and sometimes even lamps, have been an expression of this collective rebellion and resistance.

It began in Tel Aviv, in Haifa, in Jerusalem. Palestinian and Israeli women together, speaking of a homeland for the Palestinians; together protesting the politics of hatred that was wrecking their homes, breaking their lives. Mothers have walked to the market squares with photos of their disappeared and dead children; women in Bangalore, India protested the razing of the mosque in Ayodhya. Women standing in Brazil, Philippines, Germany, Netherlands. Women demonstrating on the streets of Belgrade every Wednesday from the beginning of the war in 1991. Women speaking for women of all nationalities who are victims of rape and torture of the wars. Women demanding that war rape be treated as a war crime.

Women in Black say no to all forms of violence.

Women standing, protesting and remembering in silence the innocent victims, refusing to let politics of hatred and intolerance destroy the humanity that binds and lives within all faiths.

WILL YOU STAND?

At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China 1995 hundreds of women stood together, holding placards commenting on international situations that breed violence and offering inspiration. These included:

• "We are the miracles by which we survive."
• "Our vision: Respect for Human Rights is the foundation of peace."
• "Bosnia is bleeding."
• "We have suffered immeasurable pains."
• "Reverse structural adjustment."
• "Women for Environmental and Social Justice."
• "Stop poisoning poor communities."
• "Stop coercion and violence against women for population control"
• "Women are not for bashing."

After an hour of silent vigil, candles were lit and testimony offered.

Women in Black: A Gathering of Spirit

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