We don't talk enough about women who have written their way through pain and abuse. Across history, when power concentrates in ways that silence peop
We don’t talk enough about women who have written their way through pain and abuse.
Across history, when power concentrates in ways that silence people, writing becomes one of the strongest tools of resistance.
Bearing Witness: Authoritarian people and systems thrive on erasure and distortion. Writing records what happened so it cannot be easily rewritten.
Breaking Isolation: Words—whether published, shared in private letters, or even carved into prison walls—remind people they are not alone in what they see or endure.
Carving Out Truth Rooms: Writing creates boundaried spaces where truth can live, even when public speech is dangerous.
Legacy of Resistance: From the slave narratives of the 1800s, to samizdat publications in the Soviet Union, to letters smuggled out of apartheid prisons—writing has always been the lifeline that carried truth into the future.
✨ In authoritarian times in the home or somewhere in the world, silence is what power wants. Writing—whether public or private, poetic or factual—becomes both a shield and a seed. It defends memory and plants the possibility of freedom.
The link takes you to the tragic story of Maria Munoz. But for her own video recordings and journal writings, her husband who was a nurse anesthetist may have gotten away with murdering her. May she rest in peace.