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Women in Black
In the Streets for Peace

by Cassady Casey

t’s a humid Friday afternoon in July in New York City’s Union Square Park. People just getting off from work rush toward subway entrances not looking at each other or lifting their heads. Nearby, a group of women donned in black from head to toe stand quietly and still for peace and justice in the Middle East. Each woman holds a black poster with the words “End the Occupation” printed in white in Hebrew or English.

A typical U.S. Women in Black vigil, this one in Asheville, NC. Photo: David McReynolds

It is the vigil of Women in Black. Afternoon shoppers stop in their tracks. The sight of 13 ghostly women leaves passersby visibly unnerved.

The same thing happens in London, Belgrade, Jerusalem and many other parts of the world, at regular times and intervals: Groups of women wearing the color of mourning gather to bear witness to war and grieve for the victims on all sides.

“We dress in black to show our sympathy with the victims of violence,” says Janice Williamson, a Women in Black activist in Edmonton, Canada. Edmonton’s Women in Black are mostly middle-aged; some are grandmothers. Many have never been politically involved prior to the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. For some women, the Women in Black movement provides a focus without, as one member put it, “having to stand up, be political and shout dogma.”

Worldwide Web
The network of Women in Black has no manifesto, figurehead, or constitution. Depending on who you talk to, it is an idea, a movement or a network; what it is not is an organization. (Therefore no single article, including this one, can capture or define the entire breadth of it.) But whatever it is, since 1988 it has inspired women from a wide range of ethnic, racial, religious and social backgrounds, from across the political spectrum—indeed, often from opposing sides in a conflict—and including, as in Edmonton, newcomers to protest and seasoned activists. It is said to have taken root in at least 142 cities and 30 countries worldwide. Specific actions have included protests against military aggression in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Serbia and Kosovo/a in former Yugoslavia. There have also been demonstrations to end the U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

The objective of Women in Black vigils is to build awareness of world violence, to drive a sense of solidarity among peace efforts, to send energy to those suffering who are often closer to the violence, to educate and inform the public about complex issues—and to make war an unthinkable option. Described by one group as “not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action,” Women in Black provides a framework for women who want to express opposition to wars like the one in former Yugoslavia and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Beginnings
Women in Black first emerged in 1988, a month after the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). A small group of Jewish women from Jerusalem decided to launch a simple protest to express their belief in peace and demand that Israel end its occupation of Palestinian lands. Dressed entirely in black, 15 Israeli women stood in silence at a major intersection in Jerusalem, holding signs that read “Stop the Occupation.” Although they were staging a peaceful vigil to symbolize the suffering and tragedy of both Israelis and Palestinians, their presence provoked a powerful reaction from motorists, who spat on them, called them names, and accused them of “mourning the Palestinian enemy.” They began to hold the vigils once a week at the same hour and in the same location. Soon Palestinian women joined them.

“It was a simple form of protest that women could do easily,” said an activist later in the newsletter of the Israeli group Bat Shalom (Daughters of Peace). “We didn’t have to get to the big city, we could bring our children, there was no chanting or marching, and the medium was the message.” The idea spread quickly and spontaneously by word of mouth to other places in Israel, eventually inspiring 40 Women in Black groups.

Soon after that first vigil in Jerusalem, the Israeli women heard of “solidarity vigils” gaining momentum in other countries. Initial reports came from the United States and Canada, then from Europe and Australia. Some vigils consisted of primarily Jewish women, while in other cities the groups were Jewish and Palestinian. By 1990, Women in Black vigils started in other countries, protesting against relevant local issues, some of which had nothing to do with the Israeli occupation. In Italy, Women in Black protested a range of issues from the Israeli occupation to the violence of organized crime. Groups sprang up in Germany demonstrating against neo-Nazism, racism directed at migrant workers and nuclear arms.

Vigils in a War Zone
Then, in war-torn former Yugoslavia in the fall of 1991, a more overtly political Women in Black movement arose. In Belgrade, women committed to democracy, peace and multi-ethnic democracy came together and formed a Women in Black group. In their initial public statement, the activists defined themselves as an anti-nationalist, anti-militarist, feminist and pacifist group. To the Belgrade Women in Black, opposing the Milosevic regime was an integral part of opposing the war. “We wanted to be clearly understood,” they wrote later, “that what we were doing was our political choice, a radical criticism of the patriarchal, militarist regime and a nonviolent act of resistance to policies that destroy cities, kill people and annihilate human relations.”

The Belgrade group organized more than 400 demonstrations and was one of the earliest ongoing public voices against the Milosevic regime. Nearly every week for more than seven years they held vigils in Belgrade’s Republic Square to protest the war, the regime’s policies of nationalist aggression and the systematic rape of thousands of women.

But consistently with the mission they had taken on, Belgrade’s Women in Black also supported and participated in the grassroots democracy movement. In 1997, as Serbian aggression escalated in Kosovo/a, they and other pro-democracy and human rights groups organized a rally against the war and killing in that beleaguered state. The government banned the rally 10 minutes before it began and issued threats to Women in Black and other groups. Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister referred to them as “Serbia’s inner enemies.”

Like the Women in Black in Israel, however, the Belgrade women were impervious to intimidation. For almost 10 years, from the time they launched their permanent nonviolent protest against the Milosevic regime in 1991 until just before the fall of the regime in 2000, Women in Black spoke out against repression, showed the world what inter-ethnic cooperation looked like and risked their lives working for peace and human rights.

All Over This World
A sign of the movement’s rising influence came last year when it was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In March 2001, the Belgrade branch of Women in Black was awarded the Millennium Peace Prize for Women from the U.N. Development Fund for Women. The vigils have unsettled leaders from many different countries. Former Yugoslav President Milosevic branded them “dangerous allies of America,” and in the United States the FBI labeled them potential terrorists for protesting the cycle of violence and revenge in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

In Jerusalem, where Women in Black began, they still hold a vigil every week to protest the occupation. Now it’s on Friday afternoons, near the Prime Minister’s official residence. The vigils have been going on for 15 years now, but these days the responses, both hostile and sympathetic, are getting sharper. Insults and even physical violence are happening more frequently. According to Laura Handel, a member of an Israeli Women in Black group, many of the slurs are laced with sexual innuendo: “Why don’t you sleep with Arafat?” Others target the families of the protesters: “I hope your children all die.” Recently, four men jumped out of a van, threw a woman down to the ground and destroyed her sign. Yet the Women in Black also say that more and more passersby honk and wave in sympathy, which the protesters see as a sign of widening Israeli impatience with the Occupation and the Sharon administration’s policies. Late in August, the administration suddenly attempted to suppress the weekly vigil, insisting that it alternate with a right-wing, pro-Occupation demonstration. At this writing, Women in Black are still negotiating with the Jerusalem police.

And in England, where vigils have been held in London since the Gulf War, Women in Black has been hailed as “one of the most remarkable forces in British politics.” In the last six months, reports Cambridge Women in Black, groups have started in town and cities across Britain and Scotland, including Canterbury, Southampton, Bradford, Brighton, Dundee, Guildford, Bournemouth, Lancaster, Hastings, Manchester, York and Edinburgh.

At a vigil outside the Edinburgh mall, Jane Lewis, one of the organizers says, “We’re here to prick consciences, to help people think there are other ways. It feels like a chance to reflect; it’s very powerful, standing there, not being led into an angry response.” She goes onto explain that, instead of focusing on who is right and who is wrong in a conflict, harnessing anger and blame, Women in Black emphasize looking at all angles and mourning the destruction of people and the fabric of life.

Their peaceful form of protest has shown women new ways to deal with the growing violence in their own communities and around the world, inspiring groups of women to voice their feelings publicly against the many forms of violence by standing in their own towns and cities, in markets, squares and other public spaces, dressed in black.

Perhaps their strength lies in the way that, in spite of the increasing violence in the world around them, Women in Black never cease to acknowledge the humanity of their opponents, never threatening, only trying to persuade. In London, Women in Black gather at the foot of the statue near Trafalgar Square of World War I nurse and martyr Edith Cavell. On the pedestal of the statue are the words, “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness for anyone.” The statement seems to inform and echo the actions of Women in Black.

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Feminist and pacifist organizations and networks with which Women in Black groups work include War Resisters’ International, Women Living Under Muslim Law, Spain’s conscientious objector group MOC, Germany’s CO group DFG and Italy’s Association per la Pace. For more information on Women in Black and a list of worldwide links, visit www.womeninblack.net/links.html.

Cassady Casey was WRL’s Spring 2002 Freeman Intern.