Survival itself is a courageous act.

“Speaking Through Silence” is a survivor-centered, intimate exploration of the ordinary lives of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and their ongoing struggle against impunity and stigma globally and locally.

The collection includes two exhibits: “My Body: A War Zone” and “Speaking Through Silence”.

The first exhibit—“My Body: A Warzone”—includes intimate portraits of survivors and their experiences of CRSV in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Columbia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DOC), Colombia, and Nepal.

The second exhibit—“Speaking Through Silence”—includes three personal narratives of survivors and their ongoing struggles against stigma and the legacies of CRSV in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It highlights the courage and resilience of survivors who wish to prevent and end acts of sexual violence from ever happening again.

The purpose of this collection is to provide survivors of CRSV with a public platform where they can tell and retell their survival stories with their consent and under the conditions in which they have agreed.

With this collection, we hope to increase the availability of narratives and images of survivors of CRSV in an effort to bring greater attention to impunity for sexual violence and to challenge widespread stigma and victim-blaming that is associated with it.