Women in Black vigil for Tibet

Vigil in London to mark the anniversary of the Tibetan Women’s Uprising, 12 frame 1959.

Women in somber will be holding a scout on 12 March to mark the anniversary of the Tibetan women’s uprising, and to mark our expostulation to ongoing gender specific abuses run acrossing in tenanted Tibet.

Notably, gender specific torture, forced abortions and sterilisations.

The seekout will happen on Tuesday, 12 March, at the Edith Cavell statue on St Martin’s Place, opponent the entrance to London’s interior(a) Portrait Gallery, from 5pm until 6pm.

The vigil will be silent, women-only, and – if contingent – please wear black.

On 12 March 1959 thousands of women gathered on the ground called Dri-bu-Yul-Khai Thang in prior of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.

This demonstration was an act of spontaneous non ferocious resistance to the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese authorities responded by resorting to brute force, and arrested the winders of the movement and legion(predicate) other innocent women.

They were sentenced to indefinite prison terms, and many of them were unmercifully beaten to death.

However, these repressive measures did non dampen the women’s courage, and they did not let themselves be cowered by the Chinese; the events of that day lead to the birth of the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA).

A main fair game of the Tibetan Women’s Association is to promote awareness at the local and international level of human rights abuses in Tibet.

TWA has as well initiated projects to address the various social welfare, educational and environmental of necessity of the exile community.

Women in Black is a world-wide network of women perpetrate to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and other forms of violence.

Not so much an organisation, more a means of communicating and a formula for action.

An important direction is challenging the militarist policies of our birth governments.

“Women in Black” was inspired by earlier movements of women who show on the streets, particularly Black Sash, in South Africa, and the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, seeking the “disappeared” in the political repression in Argentina.

But Women in Black also shares a genealogy with groups of women explicitly refusing violence, militarism and war, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and granting immunity formed in 1918, and the Greenham Common Women’s Peace summer camp in the UK and related groups around the world opposing the deployment of US missiles in the eighties.

Women in Black began in 1988 in Israel.

Responding to what they considered honorable violations of human rights by Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territories, the women held vigil every Friday in central Jerusalem, wearing black wear in mourning for all victims of the conflict.

The initiative soon open up to various other locations in Israel, with women standing weekly in main squares of cities or at junctions on inter-city highways.

The movement did not adopt any formal program other than adversary to the occupation, and local groups were autonomous in deciding such issues as whether or not to open participation to men as well as women.

At the peak of the Intifada there were xxx vigils in different locations throughout the country.

The number dwindled sharply afterward the Oslo Agreement in 1993, when it seemed that peace with the Palestinians was at hand, and picked up again when violent events proved that hope to have been premature.

The focus was quite precise, in order to be able to become in a wide group of women. The vigils were predictable: identical site, regular intervals.

The women wore black.

They were seen by, and provoked reactions from, many passers-by on foot and in vehicles, some of whom heckled and abused them, both in sexualized terms (“whores”) and for their government (“traitors”).

Their policy was not to shout back but to view as silence and dignity.

In other countries, including Canada, the USA, Australia, and many European countries, Women in Black vigils soon began to be organised in support of those in Israel.

In Berkeley, California, for example, Women in Black has been standing weekly since 1988.

In the UK at this time, women (mainly Jewish, with Palestinians and others) picketed the offices of the Israeli state airline, El Al.

It is impossible to name all the associate groups in the various countries that emerged since the mid 1990s, but do look them up on their individual pages on this website.

And join them.

In London, Women in Black normally hold vigils every Wednesday between 6 and 7 pm at the Edith Cavell Statue, opposite the door of the National Portrait Gallery, on St Martin’s Place, London WC2.

The vigils are silent, women-only and if possible we wear black.

 

 

Materials taken from Womens Views on News