“Nonverbal communication creates a space for reflection, for concentrating on one’s inner voices. Through observation of the self, we take a break from the din of the world. While words express still other spoken words, and other uttered thoughts, one’s silence leads to oneself. That is hermetic and hermeneutic. Looking outward, looking inward—that is the dreaming of open eyes. Poetry reaches to the edge of a heaven of death and night: that is silence.” (Alberta Marin)
“We express directly stable emotions, not strangling them with words but expressing them with the body….We go out, physical in silence in order to listen to others. Through the silence, we gradually value the forgetting of the body and the feelings. Silence for us is not the norm, it is chosen to convey the act of mutiny.” (Women in Black, Turin)
“We chose silence, refusing to speak excessive words that enfeeble and inhibit reflection about oneself and others. Silence[marks the lives of the majority of citizens. The mass media has silenced us, but to those of us in complete silence it is a choice of disagreement with this war. (Women in Black, Belgrade, 1991)
“I know that it the silence of women in my country is a symbol of deep oppression.” (Stasa Zajovic)
“We chose not to speak excessive words, and therefore we think that it is important to express and experience these feelings and experiences with silence. With silence like a protest here from where the war is waged, a visible silence like a cry and a warning. With silence and black we also want to speak shame and compassion.” (Women in Black, Belgrade)
“The meaning of silence is often acceptance. Top many words, theses, theories, and opinions, often neglecting silence and not considering its subtlety.” (Roza Damiko, Bologna)
“Wednesdays in black, that was my vote. The second sex in black announces itself in the civilian sphere and those who were not born from blood and soil spread the dream…The first sex does not listen, the second sex does not talk. It is in the history of women’s experience of silence, says Bel Huks, that the instrument of resistance of the oppressed begins.” (Lepa Mladenovic)
“Our silence and our black are not a choice of resignation, but of protest and deep reflection. Out black and our silence want to overpower the roar of bombs—not to hide them, but to stop them.” (Luisa Morgantini, Rome)
“Women in Black express by way of silence a deep distance and separation from the propagandistic clamor of a country at war.” (Women in Black, Udine)
Always disobedient, and still in the streets...
Women in black - 30 years of resistance
9th october 1991 we took to the streets of Belgrade for the first time - that is when we began non- violent resistance to the war and the policies of the Serbian regime. So far, we have organized about 2,500 street actions. We are still in the streets ...
Women in Black / WiB is an activist group and network of feminist-anti-militarist orientation, consisting of women, but also men of different generational and ethnic backgrounds, educational levels, social status, lifestyles and sexual choices.
