The Bind

Reading for my classes I am often coming across passages I find incredibly moving and meaningful. Too many to share them all. But tonight, I have one for you. It is speaking to a specific time and place and context, but the sentiment, it is universal.

We know that to overthrow the present government we have to vote for another one that will be against [women], and we must take that responsibility; we know that if we are to manifest our disobedience toward the war and be noticed, we have to stand in the opposition's street crowds and feel awful among sexist, royalist speeches and songs; we know that if we stand on the streets as small women's groups against war we expose ourselves to insults, but we still do that and feel brave; we know that if we are to deny the concept of national identity there is nothing else they'll allow us to stand for in exchange; we know that women men are urged to die courageously for their nation. Raped, murdered women will never be considered brave, except by us; we know that if we are to say aloud who we are and what we want there will be no historically accepted political patterns for our experience or our language. And yet here we are.

- Lepa Mladjenovic and Vera Litricin
"Belgrade Feminists 1992: Separation, Guilt, and Identity Crisis"