Women in Ahmadabad, India, dance in support of
the One Billion Rising global campaign calling for an end to violence against
women and girls. (Ajit Solanki/Associated Press)
One out of three women on the planet
will be beaten or raped in their lifetime—that’s over a billion women who will
experience some type of gender-based violence, according to the United Nations.
On Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, people in 205 countries across the globe took to
the streets dancing in an attempt to increase awareness of the realities faced
by women and girls as part of the One Billion Rising project. One Billion Rising stems from the work
of an organization called V-day that was founded in 1998 by Eve Ensler, author
of the award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. Every Valentine’s Day
since, Ensler’s group has allowed theater groups around the world to hold a
production of the Monologues, while encouraging people to hold events
promoting equal rights for women. This year is the 15th
anniversary of the V-day group, and the celebration has developed a far greater
following than any other event. “Nothing we have ever done has spread so fast
and happened so easily,” Ensler told the Guardian. 2012 was a particularly dark year for
violence against women, with the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan, the
gang rape and death of Jyoti Singh in India, and the gang rape of a high
schooler in Steubenville, Ohio. “All these stories have built the outrage and
ignited a fire burning through the world,” said Ensler. She believes that this year’s project
could be the beginning of a real, lasting change for women. “In the last year,
we’ve finally seen stories about violence against women breaking through in big
ways, such as in India,” Ensler explained to the Huffington Post. “One Billion Rising in
fanning the fire and allowing that energy to continue so that real legislation
and real laws, real action is beginning to happen.” Violence against women is a universal
problem and can take many forms – physical, sexual, psychological and economic.
According to World Bank data, women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and
domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and Malaria. These statistics apply to western
countries as well as nations in the developing world. In the U.S., one-third of
women murdered each year are killed by intimate partners, while in Canada a
study of teenagers aged 15 to 19 found that 54% of girls had experienced
“sexual coercion” in a dating relationship. In the Democratic Republic of Congo
an average of 36 women and girls are raped every day; in Guatemala, two women
are murdered each day.
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