Unearthing and Connecting “Women Walk Home”

In the 1980s, a small group of women in Cyprus created the movement that came to be known as’’ Women Walk Home’’. Their aim was to walk peacefully across the ‘’Green Line’’ that had been established in the country as a result of the 1974 war, thus condemning the continuation of the division and the violation of the right to return to one’s home. The movement, which attracted global interest in the Cyprus problem, operated using a non-hierarchical structure and brought together thousands of women of all political affiliations who joined the marches in increasing numbers, as well as women from abroad. Despite such mobilisation, the ‘’Women Walk Home’’ movement, remains until today largely forgotten as regards the official narrative, as well as the collective memory.

In this presentation, and drawing from the feminist practice of oral history, I aim to explore a methodology of approaching archival and oral history material related to the ‘’Women Walk Home’’ movement, many of the founding members of which are still alive, through questions related to voice, visibility and women’s agency. Moving further from simply unearthing and recovering the collective memory of the movement, I wish to examine how we, as feminist researchers, can pose questions and unfold answers that connect women’s local movements to broader feminist struggles.