In the past year in particular, we have heard of grim stories of brutal assaults against women and girls across countries notwithstanding their economic stature, religious inclination or geographical location. From the gang rape of a high school student in Steubenville, Ohio, the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan, the gang rape and death of a medical student in India to closer home, the rape of a returning migrant worker by policemen at the Kathmandu airport. These are just a handful of cases that have outraged the public and stirred widespread protests in various shapes and sizes, bringing the cause to the fore of national and international discourse.[break]
One in three women around the world will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That is a horrific statistic presented by the UN that brought Eve Ensler, the feminist playwright famous for her award winning play, Vagina Monologues, to launch the largest global movement to end violence against women and girls called “One Billion RISING!” She believes, and rightly so, that ending this violence is as important as ending poverty, AIDS or global warming. It’s a world phenomenon and in many ways a historic moment when women took to the streets to dance and unite under a common mission, sans economic and social differences, to “Strike. Dance. RISE.” This was Valentine’s Day 2013. Flash mobs were organized, twitter went abuzz with #reasontorise, #1billionrising, and two videos were soon going viral. Women and men from all walks of life and 207 different countries from the Philippines, Congo, Nepal, India to Australia, England and the USA, among others, gathered and danced to demand an end to violence.
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Ensler is a strong-headed, audacious and empathetic woman who was sexually abused as a child by her father’s best friend. In 1998, she founded V-Day, a global project to create “a world where women live safely and freely” and believes that “women should spend their lives creating and thriving rather than surviving or recovering from terrible atrocities.” Fifteen years later, amidst a world enraged and engulfed by the brutality and the growing number of global cases of sexual violence, V-Day, with the help of social media and celebrities, launched 1 Bn Rising. Anne Hathaway actively spoke about the campaign; Anoushka Shankar, the renowned musician and composer stood and spoke about her motivations and fears of being a woman and shared that she had been sexually abused as a child by someone her parents trusted; Nicola Adams, the gold medal Olympian boxer suggests how violence should stop at home and hopes that this campaign will help women who generally don’t speak up, find their voice; Jane Fonda is rising for her mother who was sexually abused when she was eight and never recovered from that experience, only to commit suicide in her forties.
On Women’s Day, just as much as we celebrate the progress women have made by becoming vocal about issues that diminish us through many protests, “slut-walks,” events, write-ups or just by sharing our experiences to help others speak up, we must also vow to make this year a collective fight to rise because enough is enough – Women need to stop saying it’s alright the first time they’re physically abused by her boyfriend/husband to speak up about abusers and bring them to justice, not to feel shame, fear or guilt for being a victim of sexual assault.
The collective instances of gender violence have led to a rude awakening panning the globe. The 1 bn rising is a crusade to keep the spirit alive and not let it frizzle out. Dance heals and transforms. However, getting out dancing did not and wasn’t intended to end violence against women in that moment. It did not change mindsets or stop men from taking the higher ground. It did not even stop innocent girls from becoming targets of rape. What it did was this – it was a reminder of the strength in sheer numbers of women who had decided to rise in collective outrage, rise for change and mobilization of action, rise for the victimized others whose stories never make it to the headlines because they are silenced or scared to report, rise to channelize the energy into real legislation, rise to be audacious to dress, think and act in ways you define, rise for your mothers, sisters and daughters to be safe and live free of fear, rise to not allow your memories to be scarred and life to be irrevocably damaged.
I am rising because I’m a woman and it’s not a curse; I am rising because there is NO excuse for gender violence.
The writer is a person of faith.
prianka.rauniyar@yahoo.com
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