Archive for the "Press Releases" Category
When I saw this photo from Antarctica I was overwhelmed. Through this photograph, I got a glimpse of what we are doing. Maybe it’s because today is V-Day and 1150 colleges and communities will be celebrating 3000 benefits across the globe raising funds and awareness for local anti-violence groups, education programs, shelters and rape crisis centers. Maybe it’s because the photo made me think of the polar bears and the preciousness of the earth and how connected everything is. Maybe it’s because the small group of people in the photograph stood up in their community way out there and made a difference on their particular spot on earth and because each one of you is doing the same.
We WILL end violence against women and girls. We are ending violence against women and girls because one person and then another in each community in each town by mountains, rivers, high rises, in snow, in sunlight, in peace, in unity, with humor and outrage is standing up.
Happy Happy V-Day!
– Eve
WOMEN IN CONFLICT ZONES HIGHLIGHTED AT THREE THOUSAND BENEFITS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AND COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE
FUNDS RAISED LOCALLY BENEFIT LOCAL WOMEN’S
PROGRAMS, SHELTERS AND CRISIS CENTERS
SPECIAL EVENTS HELD IN DUBAI, SOUTH AFRICA, AND HAITI
E-Cards In Time For Valentine’s Day
Since 1998, the V-Day movement has worked to stop violence against women and girls worldwide. V-Day’s model of ‘empowerment philanthropy’ has been a catalyst for activists, college students and anti-violence organizations to transform their communities in more than 112 countries to date. Between February 1 and March 8 (International Women’s Day) 2007, over 3000 V-Day benefits will take place in over 1120 communities and on college campuses. From Nigeria to NYU, China to DePaul University, from New Zealand to University of Puerto Rico, local activists will stage benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues” raising funds and awareness for local anti-violence groups, rape crisis centers, and women’s shelters in their communities.
V-Day’s 2007 theme Reclaiming Peace makes the connection between the worldwide anti-violence work of V-Day activists with our collective desire for peace and an end to armed conflicts. “We are saying that if a government supports the use of force, weapons, violence as a method of control and dominance, this models and gives license to the same kind of behavior at home,” stated V-Day Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler.
V-Day 2007 events will put forth this message of peace generating attention, newspaper articles, and raising funds to support their anti-violence work and dedication to peaceful means. For the first time, V-Day will offer a special version of its logo, playing off this theme. The theme will resonate in the United States and around the world and will expand on V-Day’s successful 2006 season, during which over 2700 V-Day benefit events were presented by national and international volunteer activists, educating millions of people about the issue of violence against women and girls, raising nearly $4 million and benefiting over 1100 anti-violence groups.
Each year V-Day spotlights a particular group of women who are experiencing violence, with the goal of raising awareness to put a worldwide media spotlight on this area and to generate funds to aide groups who are addressing it. In 2007 the V-Day Spotlight will be on Women in Conflict Zones because war exponentially increases the crimes of violence against women and girls. In equal measure the strength and resilience of women in rebuilding their communities and leading governments to peaceful solutions needs to be celebrated. For women, not just during war but for decades to come, armed conflict means escalated military, sexual, and domestic violence, lack of security as a displaced person or refugee, and vulnerability to sex traffickers and coerced prostitution even by the peacekeepers themselves. Given the 21st century’s escalating armed conflicts, impunity for wartime sexual violence cannot be tolerated. As patterns of wartime rape and sexual violence continue today in places such as Sudan, Congo, and Iraq, it is paramount to expose and condemn these crimes through international media coverage and public outcry and efforts in the communities themselves.
In January 2007, V-Day’s Karama Program completed a two-day national workshop in Morocco, with events in Tunisia, Jordan, and Egypt planned for February and March. Through V-Day Karama, local leaders bring activists and experts together to address violence as both a cause and an effect of the challenges facing the country’s politics, economics, health, art/culture, education, media, laws, and religious debates. V-Day Karama is taking a small delegation of women activists to the United Nations at the end of February 2007 to participate in the annual session of Commission on the Status of Women, where our delegation will organize the first NGO Caucus for the Middle East and North Africa among the international advocates.
In March 2007, the 1st Beirut International Women’s Forum will convene women leaders, politicians, executives, journalists, and activists from across the Middle East region. Convened in Dubai by the Arab League, the UN, V-Day and Al Hasnaa magazine, the Forum will capture the transformation taking place in the world of Arab women, identify emerging trends for women in civil society, business, and politics, while providing a platform to debate major aspects of the lives of Arab women such as working motherhood and women’s bodies as power.
In May 2007, the 1st workshop for V-Day activists in Africa will take place bringing together women and men from 23 countries to develop a V-Day Africa Coalition. Across Africa, local V-Day activists have been developing tools, power and resources for African women to control their bodily security in sexual relationships, zones of armed conflict, and against abuse. At the workshop, women leaders and activists in Africa will join together to look at the intersection of HIV/AIDS and violence against women, developing strategies and actions to combat these issues.
In April 2007, V-Day will travel to Haiti for the 1st time. With benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” in Port Au Prince and satellite performances by local women in rural and outlying communities, V-Day will inform and educate the world about the horrific rapes and abuses that have been taking place for decades.
In the summer of 2007, V-Day’s Until The Violence Stops Festival, successfully originated in New York City in 2006, will be replicated by V-Day organizers in Ohio and Kentucky, bringing together women’s groups in those states to stand strong and demand an end to violence in their communities.
And in February, V-Day supporters can send specially designed Valentine’s e-cards in honor of loved ones, friends and families.
Empowering women the world over has been V-Day’s greatest joy. There is nothing more rewarding than hearing from organizers, beneficiaries, and audiences that the work being done in their communities is creating safety, healing and inspiration for all women, men and children.
V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, V-Counsel member Jane Fonda, and V-Day activists joined thousands on Saturday to march in Washington, DC to protest the war and demand that the troops come home now.
Eve spoke at a pre-march Women’s Convergence with Jane Fonda, Mimi Kennedy, Q’orianka Kilcher, Rhea Perlman, Susan Sarandon, Congresswomen Maxine Waters and CODEPINK Co-Founders and leaders.
For V-Day, the protest resonated with the V-Day 2007 theme “Reclaiming Peace” which makes the connection between the worldwide anti-violence work of V-Day activists and our collective desire for peace and an end to armed conflicts. “We are saying that if a government supports the use of force, weapons, violence as a method of control and dominance, this models and gives license to the same kind of behavior at home,” stated V-Day Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler.
See the photo of the V-Day contingent marching on the cover of the Los Angeles Times:
Join us with your V-Day signs and posters this Saturday, January 27th for the United for Peace and Justice March On Washington to call for an end to the war in Iraq. Eve will speak at a pre-march Women’s Convergence with Jane Fonda, Mimi Kennedy, Q’orianka Kilcher, Rhea Perlman, Susan Sarandon, Congresswomen Maxine Waters and CODEPINK Co-Founders and leaders. This unique and powerful gathering of internationally renowned activists and leaders will congregate at 10:00AM, kicking off the rally.
The Women’s Convergence is Co-sponsored by the National Organization for Women, Eve Ensler and V-Day , Feminist Majority , WAND: Women’s Action for New Directions , Feminist Peace Network and WATER: Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual .
After the convergence, march with Eve and V-Day at this historic call for peace!
10:00 am: Reclaim Peace At the Women’s Convergence
Meet at the Navy Memorial, 7th Street and Pennsylvania NW and look for V-Day’s Reclaiming Peace banner.
11:00 am: United for Peace and Justice Rally. March kicks off at 1:00 pm.
For information on transportation from many states, please visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ride.php.
MEDIA ADVISORY
January 02, 2007
CONTACT: LAKSHMI ANANTNARAYAN
(212) 586 – 0906, lanant at equality now
After Two Years of Delay, Passage of Law Against Human Trafficking Should Be Top Priority Of The New York Legislature and Spitzer Administration
What: The New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition will be joined by renowned playwright/activist Eve Ensler and Council Member Gale Brewer at a Press Conference calling on the New York legislature to pass a strong law against human trafficking in New York state as the first priority in the new legislative session starting in January 2007. The Coalition is also calling on Governor Spitzer to make this a top priority to ensure that traffickers are effectively prosecuted and that trafficking victims can find safety and protection in New York.
When: 10:00am on Thursday, January 4, 2007
Where: Equality Now, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1527, New York, NY 10107
Who: Jessica Neuwirth (President, Equality Now)
Kika Cerpa (Trafficking survivor)
Eve Ensler (Playwright and Founder. V-Day)
Ken Franzblau (Trafficking Campaign Director, Equality Now)
City Council Member Gale Brewer
Jordana Confino, (16 year-old Co-founder and Junior Board Chair, Girls Learn
International, Inc)
Sonia Ossorio (President, National Organization for Women NYC)
The United Nations estimates that 4 million people are trafficked around the world, 80% of whom are women and girls. Although New York is a prominent United States port of entry, transit and destination for trafficking victims, it is not one of the twenty one states in the country that has passed a law against human trafficking. The continued absence of an anti-trafficking law in New York signals a conspicuous failure on the part of the state. In 2005 the New York State Assembly was unable to pass a bill, while the Senate passed a weak bill that would not have effectively addressed the problem. In the 2006 legislative session the New York State Assembly and Senate both passed weak bills that were inadequate responses to the crime of human trafficking. Neither bill was enacted into law. As the new legislative session begins in 2007, the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition is urging legislators to make the passage of an anti-trafficking law their highest priority. The Coalition is also calling on Governor Spitzer to play a pro-active role in ending sex trafficking in the state by supporting the swift passage of a strong anti-trafficking law that will effectively prosecute traffickers and help survivors rebuild their lives.
This press conference will also announce the launch of “Albany Watch,” a series of weekly public gatherings organized by anti-trafficking activists from across the state of New York. Prominent New Yorkers like Gloria Steinem will join “Albany Watch.” The public gatherings are intended to monitor the movement in the Assembly and Senate and keep up pressure on its members to take action towards passing a strong law.
The New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition is a group of leading New York-based organizations that have joined forces to advocate for a strong New York State law to hold traffickers accountable and help victims rebuild their lives. The Advisory Council, chaired by Gloria Steinem, includes Mario Cuomo, Meryl Streep, Linda Fairstein, Eve Ensler, Karenna Gore Schiff, and Deputy Mayor Carol Robles among its members. For more information log on to www.stophumantraffickingny.org
UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC, which took place June 12-27, successfully took over the five boroughs of the city, inviting New Yorkers to stand up and join V-Day in making New York City the safest place on earth for women and girls.
With startup support from The Rockefeller Foundation and lead corporate support from Verizon, sponsors included Avon Foundation, Bloomberg, CBS Outdoor, Suca by Susan Cappa and The Lakshmi Foundation.
During a two-week festival of theater, spoken word, performance and community events, UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC:
- Raised $1.1 million dollars
- Sold out 4 events reaching 4,250 people
- Welcomed 2,000 runners in Prospect Park running to demand an end to violence
- Witnessed 50 actresses and over 100 writers contributing their genius, time and talent
- Joined 70 community events in all five boroughs reaching 1,000’s of people
- Held 1 press conference with Mayor Michael Bloomberg
- Placed 2,000 messaging posters on buses and subways in all five boroughs
- Made millions of media impressions from editorial coverage in outlets including: The New York Times, The Associated Press, The Amsterdam News, Time Out NY, Metro, New York Daily News, Access Hollywood, Al Jazeera, Good Day New York, Queens Times, The Brooklyn Eagle, Womens Enews, and many more
- Reached over 8 million people who heard and saw the message that ending violence against women and girls is possible
The full Festival Follow Up Report is available for download here.
Please note that the file size is 12 mega bites and could take a few minutes to download.
Select Press Coverage:
June 12 2006
June 20 2006
June 08 2006
June 12 2006
Darkest Scenario for Women of Iraq
OWFI report on violations against women Dec 2006
Public executions of women by Islamist militias in Baghdad
Shia Militias: a new wave of public executions against women is undertaken by Al Mahdi army. Dragging, flogging, hanging and shootings fall within the routine procedure of these executions which are taking place in growing numbers. In a Shia part of Baghdad, a sector which includes Nuwab Al Thubat and Al Amin, 3 girls were killed in one week –second week of November.
On Thursday November 9, one of these executions was witnessed by an OWFI activist who was assigned to go and investigat the previous killing of two girls. While passing in Nuwab Al Thubat, pedestrians were surprised to hear a young woman screaming in that area. She was pulled by armed members of Al Mahdi militia, beaten badly in front of all. She was dragged by a wire wound around her neck to a close-by football field and then hung to the goal post. They pierced all her body with bullets. Her brother came running trying to defend his sister. He was also shot and killed.
Al Mahdi Shia militia guards – many of whom work as policemen – volunteer to punish “adulterer” women by torture and public execution.
Although the Shia clerics have legalized Mutaa (pleasure) temporary marriages, most of the women who practice it are subject to honour-killing at the hand of their male relatives or the volunteering Al Mahdi Militia.
Sunni Militias: kill both women and men who practice some suspected behavior. If a young man stares at a girl or smokes a cigarette, he will be flogged and maybe killed.
Although honour killing numbers rose considerably after the war, systemic public executions of women is a new phenomenon. In our estimation, no less than 30 women are executed monthly for honour related reasons at the hands of these militias in Baghdad and suburbs.
Truck loads of Sunni families taken by Iraqi military to unknown destiny
Um Muhamad was going to Kadhimiya city in Mid November using public transportation when an Iraqi military checkpoint stopped them and began to check the men’s id’s. They took the Sunni men, their wives and children. Um Muhamad was scared to look at the army truck which took a full load to an unknown destiny, but she noticed from the side of her eye that their hands were tied. After Sunnis were taken, and the vehicle moved, she whispered to the person sitting next to her: “I told them I am a Shia, although I am a Sunni… I did not want to be taken.”
Sectarian motivated mass execution result in dumping the shot and sometimes tortured bodies in a close-by dump yard in their neighborhoods. This practice has become routine practice by Islamist militias from both sects.
150 unclaimed women’s corpses in Baghdad morgue in the first ten days of November
OWFI activists pretended they were looking for a lost female relative in Baghdad morgue on November 12. The employee in charge told them they were late because the morgue got rid of more than 150 unclaimed dead bodies of women, many of which were beheaded, disfigured or bore signs of extreme torture. These bodies were accumulated during the recent ten days and were impossible to keep anymore as they are left in room temperature or thrown in the terraces outside. With the return to tribalism under the current situation, a family will not admit to a kidnapped daughter as it “smears” the honour of the family. Therefore, when the women get raped and killed, nobody is claiming the body afterwards.
If this toll of killed women (15women)/day does not rise, it means that 5500 Iraqi women will be killed in this coming year. Reasons of killings are mixed, but mostly for sectarian retaliation.
Poets attacked and killed by Sunni militia in Baghdad suburb, Al Madaen
Sunni Islamist militias have turned their sectors and neighborhoods into a Taliban life-style in ways which are totally alien to Iraqi cities.
On Nov. 23rd, a Sunni Militia gang attacked a house where poets were meeting in a Sunni suburb of Baghdad, Al Madaen. In this attack, a prominent poet and a friend of OWFI, Mr. Ayman Al Salmawie and his brother were killed while the others were wounded. Ayman stands second from left in the OWFI poetry event “Freedom Space 2”.
“This house practices prostitution”, a prototype posting by Islamist militias in Baghdad
If the house does not get emptied immediately, the women get killed, the house is burnt, and family devastated. In most cases, the posting is a result of cross-sectarian retaliation.
Al Mousawat Media Center
Dec 7, 2006
The Center for Global Affairs at NYU
and
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
in collaboration with
V-Day, the Global Movement to End Violence Against Women and Girls
PRESENT
A Conversation between Eve Ensler and Dr. Denis Mukwege
Healing the Wounds of War:
Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Join Eve Ensler and Dr. Denis Mukwege – long-time advocates for improving the lives of women and girls in violent situations – for this special evening as they discuss sexual violence in the Congo and beyond, and examine mechanisms for prevention and ways to influence policy change on the ground.
Background
The scourge of sexual violence connects many of the humanitarian emergencies of our time, from Darfur and northern Uganda, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Bosnia, Timor-Leste and beyond. Faced with an estimated 25,000 cases of rape and other sexual violence against women and children reported per year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland recently described the plague of sexual violence that has prevailed in the country’s eastern provinces for nearly a decade, as a “cancer that seems out of control”. The effects of sexual violence are catastrophic, rending the bonds of family, community, and society. Despite the recognition that rape can constitute a crime against humanity — a charge second in gravity only to genocide — the problem continues unabated today in too many environments like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Darfur, where the mere act of foraging for wood or fetching drinking water exposes hundreds of thousands of women and girls to grave danger, and where systematic rape — and near-total impunity – continue to define the crises. Each year, V-Day focuses its spotlight on a specific group of women experiencing violence, with the goal of raising awareness of the problem and funding for the aid organizations addressing it. In 2007, the V-Day Spotlight will be on Women in Conflict Zones. This event, a dialogue between two long-time advocates dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in violent situations, will contribute to expanding the awareness of sexual violence in the Congo and beyond, examining mechanisms for prevention and ways to influence policy change on the ground.
Friday, December 1, 2006
6pm – 8pm
New York University School of Law
Vanderbilt Hall, Tishman Auditorium
40 Washington Square South at MacDougal Street
Pre-registration required. Register online at www.scps.nyu.edu/preventviolence
EVE ENSLER is an Award-winning Playwright/Performer/Activist and Founder of V-Day, a global movement that supports anti-violence organizations throughout the world
DR. DENIS MUKWEGE MUKENGERE is the Director and Founder of the ground-breaking Panzi General Referral Hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu Democratic Republic of the Congo
Please note:
Arrive promptly at 5:30 PM to ensure priority seating. Please note that pre-registration is required but does not guarantee a seat if you arrive late. Because our events are presented at no charge, it is our policy not to hold seats once a program is about to begin.
For more information please call (212) 992-8380 or email scps.global.affairs at nyu
Registration Opens Today for V-Day 2007. Join V-Day and the thousands of activists at colleges and cities around the world who stage V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and funds to end violence against women in their communities. Each year between February 1 and March 8 (International Women’s Day), V-Day events take place on college campuses and in theaters, churches, and cafes worldwide.
Make a difference in your community! V-Day events feature a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues. The money raised stays in your local community, supporting organizations that stop violence against women and girls. The Vagina Monologues playwright, V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, waives fees to V-Day benefit presenters of the play.
In 2007, thousands of V-Day benefits around the world will share the theme “Reclaiming Peace,” making the connection between the worldwide anti-violence work of V-Day activists and our collective desire for peace/an end to armed conflicts. Additionally, each year V-Day spotlights a particular group of women who are experiencing violence with the goal of raising awareness and funds to put a worldwide media spotlight on this area and to raise funds to aide groups who are addressing it. The V-Day 2007 Spotlight will be on Women in Conflict Zones because war exponentially increases the crimes of violence against women and girls. In equal measure the strength and resilience of women in rebuilding their communities and leading governments to peaceful solutions will be celebrated.
Bring V-Day to your city, your community, your college, or your university!
To sign up, visit www.vday.org/signup
Join us. Help stop the Violence!
At the start of August 2006, V-Day’s partners in the Karama Program issued a joint statement denouncing the violence that erupted against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza. More than 50 women’s organizations in the Middle East and North Africa signed on together: “We are women leaders from nine countries across the Arab Region, linked through V-Day Karama, addressing violence against women from every angle of society and politics. When political and military violence erupts, our work begins there.”
On September 2, 2006, the Karama partners came together in Amman, Jordan, to follow-up with a human rights forum and benefit event for Lebanese women’s organizations. The event was a major success, raising more than $20,000 for three groups: Kafa (Enough) Violence and Exploitation Against Women, the Lebanese Democratic Women Council, and the Women’s Rights Committee.
At the forum, women leaders from Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan discussed their concern that any country in the Middle East region could be the next target for such violence. They recognized the need for crisis preparedness in each of their countries and addressed their own readiness for the roles women’s organizations play during crisis response, political or otherwise.
The women leaders seek to reach out to international social movements for new alliances and to maintain awareness of the damage done in Lebanon and other countries. A formal mechanism such as a tribunal was proposed to place consequences on the slaughter and displacement of civilians and the destruction of national infrastructure. Karama’s partners seek to keep Lebanon’s suffering present in public consciousness and engaged with social movements over the long-term, to help prevent such violence from erupting again.