One Billion Rising: a global campaign to highlight violence against women

2014-08-12 10

One Billion Rising is a global campaign by women, for women. The movement calls for an end to violence, and for justice and gender equality. On February 14, 2013, a one-day event was held, a call for one billion women around the world to join together to dance in a show of collective strength. The event was held on the 15th anniversary of the V-Day movement. The word "billion" refers the statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime, or about one billion.

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

On September 20, 2012, people from 160 countries had signed up to take part in the campaign. On February 14, 2013, the rally was held in more than 190 countries.
The campaign was initiated by playwright and activist Eve Ensler (known for her play The Vagina Monologues), and her organization V-Day. The campaign was in part inspired by the Todd Akin 'legitimate rape' and pregnancy comment controversy. Ensler, shocked at Akin's statement, wrote an open letter in response.

Around 5,000 organizations have joined the campaign, which has also been aided or endorsed by religious ministers, movement builders, actors Rosario Dawson, Robert Redford and Stella Creasy, British Labour Co-operative politician.

Source: Wikipedia & http://www.onebillionrising.org

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