in the Plaza Mayor (next to the horse statue) at 12:00 noon.
Women in Black
invite you
to their vigil in black and in silence
In remembrance of 25 November
INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN
Women in Black Against War – Madrid
Remember and support
The women’s answer to violence by the military, making known their feelings, proposals and alternatives to violence and to war.
Let us expel war and violence
from history
and from our lives
……………………………………………………………………
25 November, International Day Against Violence Toward Women
WOMEN’S RESPONSE TO VIOLENCE BY THE MILITARY
“We do not even want to mention the number of deaths because for us it is fundamental that no death become a statistic and that the basic reasons for this struggle not lose the perspective of the individual and unique history of each of these lives, now dead. We do not want this struggle to dissolve into some numerical significance regarding death, rather that it represent respect for life.”
(Collective of “Mujeres Creando” of Bolivia).
War is the ultimate expression of violence and militarism. Wars pre-suppose organized confrontation of armed groups with the goal to control, disarm, subjugate and destroy the enemy. Militarism, present to a greater or lesser degree in all societies, expresses a way of thinking, of feeling, of behaving, profoundly rooted in our consciousness and our socio-political systems.
The violence that women suffer in situations of armed conflict is an extreme manifestation of the discrimination and abuses they suffer in times of peace, and of the inequality in power relationships between men and women in the majority of societies. When political tensions and latent militarism explode into open conflict, the habitual attitudes and abuses take on new dimensions, and all forms of violence against women are exacerbated.
There are specific forms of violence against women in situations involving armed conflict and they are committed, to a greater or lesser degree, by all the participating armed actors. Rape as a weapon of war is, perhaps, the most well-known and brutal violence in which conflicts affect women and young girls; along with subjugation into slavery, sexual and domestic, and restriction of freedom to circulate because of fear of being kidnapped and raped. In times of war, many women must take on additional roles as only head of family and provider – women and children constitute 80% of the millions of displaced refugees who have fled from conflict situations.
Many women now have, and have had in the past, an important leadership role in the cause of Peace, not only as organized groups, but also the many women who carry out their daily chores, whose work is the very sustenance of life. The voices of women become notable as they express sentiments, needs, proposals and alternatives to latent militarism and war, such as demilitarizing our manner of feeling, thinking and acting; promoting education for Peace; promoting non-violent social change; participating at the peace negotiation tables; working for autonomy and equity; creating a just and lasting peace and calling out for truth, justice and reparations, so that the horror not be repeated.
“The universal values of love, compassion, solidarity, care and tolerance must form the basis of global ethics, which should permeate culture, politics, commerce, religion and philosophy”.
(Wangari Muta Maathai, Activist from Kenya, Nobel Peace Prize, 2004).
Translation: Trisha Novak USA