One Billion Rising On V-Day
Posted by Michelle Moquin on February 11th, 2013
“…we win, and violence against women ends, or we die trying…”
Good morning!
Yes, Social Butterfly: Ask and you shall receive. :) I was planning on blogging about it this week. Today is as good as any other day before the big V-day. I wish you were going to be there. It would be fun to dance in the street with you, sans my back straight jacket of course!
One Billion Raped, One Billion Rising
There are now 7 billion people on the planet, roughly half of whom are women.
Recent statistics state that 1 in 3 women will be raped or beaten during her lifetime.
So even by low estimates, we are facing a worldwide epidemic of Violence Against Women that will affect — no, devastate — ONE BILLION of our mothers, daughters and sisters.
AND for every ACTION there must be an equal and opposite REACTION.
For every woman beaten, a woman is rising against such brutality. For every Jyoti, there is a Rita out on the streets chanting, NO MORE!
Eve Ensler and V-DAY have launched a massive international campaign entitled ONE BILLION RISING. Inspired by, and in sisterhood with, the wave of protests raging across South Asia today, One Billion Rising is part of the global REACTION to rape.
This V-DAY, February 14th, ONE BILLION OF US will rise up in towns and cities around the world. People like you and me, coming together to show their support for a different kind of world.
Because chances are, if you’re reading this, you have been beaten or raped (at least once) or you know someone who has. You have survived, they have survived, I have survived- and now it’s time to focus our energy into changing these odds for the sake of our daughters and their daughters to come.
To begin with, here is the ultimate fact everyone needs to understand:
WOMEN ARE INDESTRUCTIBLE.
For every woman killed by the fist, the stone, or the pyre, countless women wake up, stand up and join the movement to end Violence Against Women. Every senseless death must breed a thousand new warriors for change. They may be able to separate us individually and attack us on the streets, in our homes, in the courtroom… but once united, we form a force more powerful than rape that cannot be defeated.
FOR ONE BILLION RAPED, ONE BILLION MUST RISE.
And that’s where you come in: Women, girls, men and boys.
Men and boys have a role to play in this movement too, especially men in positions of power. They can be models and teachers on how to love and support the women and girls in their lives. And every man should speak up and take action when a woman is being harassed, threatened or abused. Two-time Super Bowl Champ Jarvis Green has joined V-DAY’s Call To Action For Men, setting an example of how male role-models can help us put an end to Violence Against Women.
We must also begin to look beyond the back alleys for the root causes of Violence Against Women and shed light on the places where impunity and complacency fester. Dr. Vandana Shiva does an illuminating job at unveiling the connection between violence targeting women and policies that disregard the role women play in the world economy. Reminding us “that the rape of the Earth and rape of women are intimately linked, both metaphorically in shaping our worldviews and materially in shaping women’s everyday lives.”
As an activist focused on the human rights of women and girls in war zones, I have seen more than my share of the destruction caused by rape and state-sponsored Violence Against Women. I have been made sick by it.
But one thing I learned from my sisters in the Congo, where nearly every woman I met had been raped, is that once the stigma is erased, once enough women have been ravaged and left for dead, what’s left behind is courage and intelligence and an unbreakable strength that continues to rise… and we rise with a primal scream that roars “you’re going to have to kill every last one of us to keep us quiet!”
And what happens when every last woman is gone? Mankind’s future is wholly dependent on womankind and our wombs. By attacking women and raping little girls (you know who you are and now I’m speaking to you), you only add fuel to our firefight; you multiply our armies for justice and security; you amplify our collective furor.
The only end game I can see is either we win, and violence against women ends, or we die trying… and in both cases you lose. Checkmate rapist!
When I’m feeling distraught and consumed with grief from yet another gang rape on a bus, I turn instead to the stories of everyday heroines out there. These are the women waking up every day, putting on their armor and taking on the Goliath that is Violence Against Women. Women like those of La Ruta Pacifica in Colombia, whose groundbreaking direct actions join campesino, black, indigenous and urban women in massive mobilizations, or “rutas,” held in locations controlled by armed groups who specifically target women. Or heroines like Radhia Nasraoui of Tunisia, who has spent more than 30 years standing up for increased legal protections for women, despite being consistently harassed, threatened and beaten.
These women, and thousands like them, are leading us out of this violent nightmare. Inspired by their will, their steadfast vision and their immense courage, I am motivated to rise up too.
Although I am in the relative safety of my home in the United States, women are being raped and abused in record numbers all around me! That sad fact should infect you like a parasite, and take up host in your brain, as it has in mine…until you can’t help but get off the couch and join us in doing something about it.
This Valentine’s Day, instead of honoring the women you love with cancer-causing sweets orenvironment-destroying greeting cards, do something REVOLUTIONARY!
Events and flash mobs are planned all over the globe! CLICK HERE to find the event nearest you, andGO HERE to learn the flash mob dance “Break The Chain” at home (also available for those with compromised mobility HERE).
Join us to add your voice to the Global Movement To End Violence Against Women. Just by showing up at an event, you are altering the course of history and making our numbers greater. If you can’t get to an event, at the very least, SIGN THIS PETITION to tell the leaders of the world that Violence Against Women is deplorable and demand change now!
ONE BILLION RISING IS:
• A global strike
• An invitation to dance
• A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape
culture ends
• An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their
power in numbers
• A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given
• A new time and a new way of being
We may not be able to win every battle, but together we will win this war.
In Solidarity,
Kiri Westby
Changemaker/Rulebreaker/Storyteller
********
Readers: There are events happening all over the world on V-day. If you plan on participating, blog me and let me know the city you are from. If you have no plans and want to join us and dance in protest, click here to find an event near you on V-day…or just create your own event – it’s never too late to gather people and dance in protest for women. I’m going to be participating in few events. I HOPE to see you there!
Al: You have reason to be concerned. When people are struggling to get work or have had to take a cut in pay, just like with food where they can’t afford products that are organic or without added chemicals etc., they purchase less quality products that are potentially harmful for them.
Our economy needs to thrive for all, so that people can afford to purchase products that support their health in all areas of their lives. Otherwise, they are going to be forced to buy cheap toxic goods from Walmart, and eat cheap food that is laced with chemicals, and end up needing many drugs to deal with their illnesses. It is the major corps and big pharma that makes all the money while the people suffer trying to survive. It seems like a never ending horrible cycle of life for many.
Oh…signed it. Done. Thanks.
恭禧發財
Peace & Lots of Love.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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February 11th, 2013 at 9:25 am
…though new rich…
February 11th, 2013 at 10:30 am
In honor of Black History Month:
This Day in History: 1644 – First Black legal protest in America pressed by eleven Blacks who petitioned for freedom in New Netherlands (New York). Council of New Netherlands freed the eleven petitioners because they had “served the Company seventeen or eighteen years” and had been “long since promised their freedom on the same footing as other free people in New Netherlands.”
February 11th, 2013 at 11:36 am
Michelle:
Seems like all I am doing lately is relaying petitions to your readers to make it easier for them to sign these petitions that they might otherwise not be aware of. If that is helping these causes to get more exposure and more signatures, then I guess I am helping out.
It also seems like there is a lot going on right now, as I am recieving requests to sign this petition or that one nearly everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 in one day.
I consider these issues important and worthy of my time and effort to pass along. This country is in horrible shape, as is much of the rest of the planet.
Corporate greed and political corruption are running amok and they are a match made in hell and spawned by the devil his/her self.
Why don’t we vote these assholes out of office if they are not serving the public? And (this I will never understand) why would some women ever vote republican if all the republicans do is trample on women’s rights and make life harder for them.
Do they enjoy being beaten and abused? Women have the numbers, therefore the power to vote these codgers out of office. It seems like the whole world has gone mad. This is a sad, sad state of affairs for everyone concerned.
Al
February 11th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
More Repugnant behavior! I am embarrassed to be from Florida.
Former Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering charges Monday just before jury selection in his criminal trial was to begin.
Greer pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and a single count of money laundering for funneling money from the Republican Party of Florida to a company he set up with his right-hand man. He could be sentenced to a minimum of 3 1/2 years and a maximum of 35 years in prison at his March 27 sentencing.
The plea deal avoids would could have been an embarrassing trial for the state GOP. Some of Florida’s most powerful politicians were scheduled as witnesses, including former Gov. Charlie Crist, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and several state House and state Senate leaders.
“There were a number of people who did not want this trial to go forward and the trial isn’t going forward,” said Damon Chase, Greer’s attorney. “Once again, Jim Greer is falling on his sword for a lot of other folks.”
Protecting their own, AGAIN.
February 11th, 2013 at 1:13 pm
Right on, Michelle! Thanks especially for the link on where to find events or start one. This is very important event for women, world-wide.
And Al, I think your links are very important too. Keep ‘em coming, my good man. It must be either simple ignorance that keeps republican women voting that way, or a suppressive lifestyle that doesn’t allow the women to think for themselves (look at the women in Utah as an example). It’s up to the rest of us women to bring the republican women into the light and thinking right. I believe we must call them out on their dinosaur thinking and show them the way. Humanity cannot afford otherwise. We need to keep talking about it and hopefully herd the masses through the door of enlightenment.
In other news, $1,000,000 reward offered now for Dorner. Just WOW.
/SB
February 11th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
…. thinking correctly…. not thinking, right, as in left/ right. Ooops! Hopefully you all got that context!
/SB
February 11th, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Hi Michelle:
For those readers who believe global warming (they call it climate change now)is not some crazy myth, I got another request to petition Pres. Obama via telephone urging him to take the lead on climate change.
This link has the phone number and a sample script as to what one might to say to the presidents voice mail. And of course a detailed description of the issue itself, which happens to be an important energy policy.
http://act.credoaction.com/call/report/?r=6995784&cp_id=294&tg=921&id=54595-2171202-xvZei3x
Adam:
Welcome back, I am wondering if AH and Bita are back as well.
Susan and Social Butterfly:
Thanks for the alohas
Thx,
Al
February 12th, 2013 at 12:46 am
Good for Obama. The catholic church needs to be exposed.
February 12th, 2013 at 12:52 am
The world has changed a lot, and we mustn’t forget to appreciate our options now… yet I feel like the fight for freedom to be a woman in control of her body is a constant struggle.
Look at how we have to fight every step of the way to hold onto our hard-fought rights in society today, with the charge to erode our rights to reproductive freedom!
Society still gives us good reasons to see why women are still nearly twice as likely to suffer clinical depression over men.
Michelle your blog keep these conversations going. And we need to remind ourselves to all cut ourselves a little slack.