The Autonomous Women's Centre expresses solidarity with all women who have spoken publicly this year about their experiences of violence. This year will be remembered as the year of the beginning of the end of women's silence.

At the end of the year, numerous women who told their stories on the social network Twitter under #NisamPrijavila(#Didn’t report) reminded us that it is necessary to change the awareness towards understanding the prevalence and consequences of violence against women. Through the authentic confessions of women under #NisamPrijavila, we see that change is necessary in every segment of society because the reasons for not reporting violence are different and each one is equally important.

Some women and girls said they did not feel trusted to tell their stories to their parents and immediate family, regardless of whether it happened to them when they were minors or adult women. Some who survived only "sexual harassment or psychological violence" needed time to understand that it was violence, but even then, they did not address anyone because they knew that they would encounter mistrust and downplaying of their trauma. Some were silent out of fear for their lives, knowing that the perpetrator is either in a power position or has connections with those who are. All of them did not report the violence to the institutions because they did not trust them. Some who spoke did not find support and protection, including that from the police, social welfare centres, medical institutions, the prosecutor's office, and the courts, as prescribed by the law. Many blamed themselves because society and the circumstances in which they live had taught them so.

We call on all those who lead the institutions in charge to react in cases of violence, to read the confessions of women #NisamPrijavila, in order to improve the conduct within the institution they lead and punish those responsible for failing to act. It is the duty and responsibility of everyone to know what women, girls and young girls who report violence face, and not to make it difficult for them, with their actions, when they gather the strength and courage to report violence. We invite individuals, all those trusted people whom women, girls and young girls place their trust in initially, to believe their statements and be in solidarity with the needs of the survivors.

Women were not silent, but were being silenced for centuries. That wall of silence has been breached. Let's support them.