Across 193 countries, one billion people will dance and rise to end violence against women. We bring you live updates from New Delhi event and also from all that is happening across India. In the national capital, a march is scheduled at the Parliament Street at 5 PM. The movement seeks to highlight some disturbing facts about violence against women.
More than 1 billion women and girls around the world will be beaten or raped during their lifetimes — and Aspen is a part of that statistic.
To raise awareness about this issue, the local nonprofit Response is holding an event tonight at Jimmy's as part of a global day of action called One Billion Rising.
People from all walks of life are coming together today to pledge their commitment to put an end to violence against women. A series of cultural events have been planned across the country as part of the global campaign which is being called #onebillionrising.
The campaign was started by playwright and activist Eve Ensler (known for her play The Vagina Monologues) against all forms of "sexual abuse". The word "billion", say the organizers, refers to the one billion women who are survivors of abuse.
Times campaign in support of #onebillionrising: Pledge your commitment.
Women organizations, elected representatives, legal luminaries, actors, artists, NGOs and academic institutions apart from individuals are expected to participate in the day-long programme, its organizers said. The campaign will simultaneously be held in 200 other countries.
In New Delhi, its highlight will be a cultural event at Parliament Street between 5pm and 8pm, which will feature a play followed by song and dance performances by students of Lady Shri Ram College, Miranda House and Kamala Nehru College.
"We thank Delhi Metro for joining OBR campaign to make Delhi a safe, gender-friendly and inclusive city," Anjlee Agarwal, executive director of Samarthayam, an organization working for the rights of the differently-abled, said.
South Asia Coordinator of the OBR campaign Kamla Bhasin said, "We are launching Indian women`s and girl`s freedom struggle tomorrow and we are going to question every patriarchal establishment including ourselves. We seek freedom from patriarchy and freedom from violent masculinity. "
"One Billion Rising helps to bring light to the staggering statistics of violence against women on a global level, and Response has partnered with the movement to remind everyone that it happens on a local level, as well," said Jill Gruenberg, advocacy and prevention program coordinator for Response: Help for Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, noting that Response served 649 victims in 2012 alone.
"Violence against women is unfortunately not a comfortable or fun topic for most people to talk about," she said. "This event will allow us to bring people together in support of ending violence against women in a way that is accessible, enjoyable and empowering.
"It's not often that we as a community get a chance to speak out, rise up and celebrate the cause — One Billion Rising is that opportunity."
Tonight's event at Jimmy's includes a three-course dinner for $100, of which $50 will be donated directly to Response. Then, at 10 p.m., DJ Mayfly takes over the dining room for the One Billion and Rising Rise Up and Dance Party. A minimum donation of $20 will be collected at the door and includes a cocktail.
For more information on Response or One Billion Rising, call Response at 970-920-5357. To make reservations for tonight's event, call Jimmy's directly at 970-925-6020.
 Eve Ensler's "One Billion Rising" aims to spark the biggest global action against gender-based violence [AP] | |
| There are times when it feels like audacity is endangered. I come from a generation that is known, particularly in contrast to the supposedly rebellious and checked out Gen X before it, as being respectful of authority and highly tactical and ambitious. We've got five-year plans. We like to be right. We prefer to succeed rather than fail, make moves rather than take risks. Even our rebellions often come in the form of strategic plans. Eve Ensler isn't like that. Eve Ensler has the soul of a 13-year-old - naive, empathic at superhuman levels, melodramatic at times - and the vision of a wizened old woman who has spent too many years on earth, and has too few left, to bother with the delusions of calculation and safety. Which is why, it's not so surprising that this uncommon character, one year ago today, announced that she wanted to spark the biggest global action against gender-based violence in history. One Billion Rising is a call to action for 1 billion women and men throughout the world to strike and dance today in order to call attention to the horrifying statistic that one in three women, that's one billion, will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. The campaign has been run all year by Eve Ensler's now 15-year-old organisation, V-Day, which is most famous for activating people's feminist imagination through Ensler's groundbreaking play, The Vagina Monologues. Ensler's audacity is less surprising when one considers what V-Day has accomplished. Together with their dedicated local organisers, they have raised more than $85 million, funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programmes and educated millions. The organisation reports that 86 cents to the dollar goes directly into ending violence against women and girls, largely due to their model, which relies most heavily on impassioned local volunteers and keeps the organisation itself small and virtual. In 2012, alone, there were over 5,800 V-Day benefit events.
The results have been profound. Activists in 203 countries from over 13,000 organisations around the globe will dance today. In Paris, the Women's Coalition of the French Parliament will dance.In Bangladesh, millions plan to form a human dancing chain across the country.In Bosnia, women and men will dance along the riverside and public squares. The Mayor of Lima, Susana Villaran, has officially made today One Billion Rising Day. An action this grand doesn't come out of strategic planning sessions using the latest business bestseller. It doesn't emerge from the myopic quibbling that sometimes goes on between balkanised bloggers. It doesn't spring from the heads of wonks or management consultants. It comes from a woman who said vagina. So. Many. Times. It comes from an organisation that has been savvy enough to give away their most prized possession -Ensler's plays and the zeitgeist within - in order to build a global anti-army. It comes from this increasingly rare fire - alternatively called chutzpah, audacity, daring, nerve. An action like this also doesn't spring from nowhere; this phenomenon is possible only because of the 15 years of organising that has come before it. Ensler doesn't have any delusions about this either. She said: "February 14, 2013, will change the world, not because it is a day of magic, although there are indeed mystical elements surrounding this campaign. It will change the world because the preparation for it and organising for it has already created an energetic wind or wave igniting existing efforts to end violence against women and create new ones."The day of foot-stomping, flash-mobbing and booty-shaking all across the world will not, in fact, end violence against women. It won't stop men of the cloth from molesting children, the Taliban from shooting little girls who want an education, or boyfriends from raping their girlfriends. But what it does is help all of us tell a new story about what's possible. It creates connections across demographic and organisational difference, a shared experience and set of memories, an undeniable visual and visceral demonstration of our collective outrage. It gives us somewhere to place our intolerance for what happened in New Delhi and Steubenville and so many places just like it that never made the headlines. Above all else, it awakens our own dormant audacity. If Eve Ensler and V-Day can get one billion people to dance together, what else might be possible? Courtney E Martin is a writer, speaker and social media strategist based in Brooklyn. She is the author of Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists and the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network. Follow her on Twitter: @courtwrites The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. |
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