Mujeres de Negro Madrid

25 November: On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we remember the women in conflict areas On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we want to remember the women who suffer violence in areas of conflict. According to data of the United Nations, during 2023 the number of civilian victims in armed conflicts increased 72% in comparison with 2022. In particular, the number of women killed doubled and that of minors tripled. Sexual violence also increased: 50% globally and in the case of serious violations of young girls, 35%. During that year there were some 170 armed conflicts and some 612 million women and girls living in a radius of 50 kilometers of these combats. Sexual violence is systematically used as a weapon of war: from the symbolic and physical use of the bodies of women as a battlefield and ethnic cleansing to illegal slave trade as a means of financing various armed factions, women and girls are used...

Return Their Voice to the Afghan Women Since the return of the Taliban to power, they have approved more than 100 edicts or laws to eliminate the rights of women and girls to education, health, liberty of expression, political representation, culture, liberty of movement and work (except in the field of health and accompanied by a masculine family member). The last law, which prohibits the feminine voice, including for reading the Koran, is an example of the degree of slavery to which the women are submitted in this country. Even sexual abuse is legal, as it permits marriage of young girls and the obligation of all women to marry against their will. It is hard to understand that after so many deaths and suffering caused by the war to throw out the Taliban from the government in 1992, twenty years later, the same powers that tossed them out, have put them back in power. The justification that the U.S. forces left so there could be peace is not valid for the women, who continue w...

36 Wars Are Destroying Our Planet Other than the two wars that are shown daily on the screens, Israel against Gaza and the war between Russia and Ukraine, it is estimated that last year there were at least 36 open conflicts in the world. Some investigatory teams raise this number to 56, calling some of them zones of tension . The regions with the most armed conflicts are central Africa, south Asia and the Middle East. Currently, there are also 40 peace processes underway, with very different results. The Sahel is a hotspot on the continent of Africa. It is a strip that crosses several countries with entrenched violence since 2012: Senegal, Mali, Burkina-Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia… suffering coup d’états, combat between various regular armies and other armed actors, rebel groups and jihadists, etc. These are joined by French armed forces, the Blue Helmets of the UN, Russia (the mercenaries of Wagner) and Turkey. The largest number of persons assassinated and ten...

Against the Genocide and Ecocide in Gaza It is not possible to ignore the climate and ecological crisis the world is now suffering. The repeated bombings destroy or annihilate the life and land of the Palestinian people in Gaza. This past 7 October, after the Hamas attack 1,200 died and 240 were taken hostage; of these, 130 are still being held and it isn’t known if they are still alive. On the other hand, after the Hamas attack, Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. The Israeli blockade impedes the entrance of humanitarian aid, causing famine and death by malnutrition. The Gazans have been undernourished, crowded together, living without water or with contaminated water, without light or fuel, and since the beginning of the conflict in the Gaza Strip women and children have been condemned to the most extreme vulnerability. Schools and several universities have been totally or partially destroyed by the Israeli armed forces. In addition, numerous librar...

24 May, International Day of Women for Peace and Disarmament We meet today in this plaza to commemorate the International Day of Women for Peace and Disarmament . In 1982, on a day like today, antimilitarist women installed the first Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (United Kingdom) to protest against nuclear arms and the arms race, which, led by NATO, was taking place in the world. Ten years later, 18 May 1992, that military base was declared illegal by the Supreme Court. We are inheritors of the movement opposing the First World War, as we continue using today the great majority of tools for protest used at that time: manifestations, chaining, hunger strikes, rent strikes, indicting war criminals, support for desertion, support for refugees of all the factions, etc. In 1915, they also organized the International Women’s Congress of The Hague , where more than a thousand women gathered to reclaim a more just and worthy society, free of bellicose confrontations and wars. ...

Against the New European Migration Pact The European Union is proposing a common European framework for the regulation of migration and asylum that poses a retrogression in the protection of human rights. This pact, which is expected to be approved in April, before the election of the European Parliament in June, would annul the universal right for soliciting asylum recognized in the Geneva Convention of 1951. The right for asylum would be canceled for whichever nationalities the EU might decree. There is already a list of countries that are excluded: Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Afghanistan… That is to say that rights would be granted according to nationality without regard to the seriousness of the causes underly-ing the requests for asylum that have to do with wars, climate change, sexual orientation, female genital mutilation, etc. The rights for persons who have already established themselves and set down roots would disappear, im-peding the regrouping families f...

30 January School Day of Nonviolence and Peace Today, in memory of Ghandi and the values he represents, we want to keep in mind and recognize the Israeli and Palestinian women who have worked for years for peace and justice in their land. We support that their model for adjustment of the conflict be disseminated in the schools. At present, the anti-war activists are repressed and punished by the government and rejected by the society. Among them: Women in Black , Israel, 1988. Ten women went out into the street in Jerusalem at the beginning of the first Intifada to oppose the policy of occupation of the Israeli government of the Palestinian land, saying “STOP THE OCCUPATION”. Altogether, there were 30 vigils throughout the country. Since then, they have continued having vigils every Friday. This is the origin of the International Network of Women in Black . The Jerusalem Link , 1994. Formed by two organizations of women, Bat Shalom (Israel) and the Jerusalem Center for Women...