PaRCha – JNU – AISA material – 2006 ID-16413
Image by PaRChA project
.
there. There were many visits to Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo and other towns and cities of the region. .
As always in womens movements, and especially perhaps in groups opposing violence, there are many lesbians active in Women in Black. It has been productive to make connections between violence in war and in everyday life, including the violence of homophobia, misogyny and racism. A particularly strong and supportive relationship was formed between lesbians in the Leuven Vrouwen in het Zwart and Zene u Crnom. And other continents .
Women in Black in India began in 1992. When the Babri Masjid, an ancient mosque, was torn down by Hindu fundamentalists and violence engulfed India, women were the main victims. WIB in the city of Bangalore have stood every Thursday in silent vigils on the streets, in the market squares and in the Gandhi Peace Park, protesting the wars against women. Women in Black in the Philippines began in 1995. The Asian Womens Human Rights Council and the Lila Pilipina, an organization of former comfort women, gather often in front of the Japanese Embassy in Manila, dressed in black, demanding compensation for the wartime crime of sexual slavery by the Japanese army in World War II. .
A landmark occasion in the nineties was a massive Women in Black vigil (an estimated 3000 women) in Beijing on September 4 1995 that was organized by the Women in Black of India and the Asian Womens Human Rights Council, at the time of the UN World Conference on Women. They called for a world safer for women and an end to wars and armed conflicts. From 1996, Women in Black in Nepal have stood in silent vigils around the issues of trafficking and violence against women in public places in Katmandu. .
In 1998 and 1999 Women in Black groups everywhere had occasion to demonstrate against a sequence of military engagements by the USA, sometimes partnered by the UK, or in the context of NATO. These included continued sanctions and bombing raids against Iraq, the bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan, and the bombardment of Belgrade and other Serbian cities. Creating an electronic network .
It was the Spanish women of Mujeres de Negro, who first saw how crucially important information technology was going to be in linking WIB groups in antiwar action. They were the ones to take the step of setting up an electronic list-serve for Women in Black, at first in Spanish, eventually in English too. Later, in the year 2000 they set up a system of country coordinators, thus effectively turning WIB into a worldwide net. The information now circulating by e-mail mainly comes from, and goes to, WIB groups. But women with similar aims though using different names and organizational approaches (for instance in Afghanistan and Colombia) are also linked through the list. .
Intensified conflict in Israel/Palestine .
The renewal of the Palestinian intifada, in late September 2000, after the Al-Aqsa mosque incident, restimulated WIB in Israel. By mid-November women were standing at six sites (Nazareth, Acre, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the Nachson junction) and this activism continues today in 15 simultaneous vigils, some calling themselves Women in Black and others not. November 2000 also saw the formation in Israel of the Coalition of Women for a Just .
.
.