Archive for the "Press Releases" Category
Vagina Warriors Workshop Ideas To End Violence Against Women and Give a Special Performance of “The Vagina Monologues” to an International Audience
Tamsin Larby, Karin Heisecke and Mariana Katzarova, of V-Day Europe, brought V-Day’s mission of ending violence against women and girls to a diverse group of international activists at the European Social Forum 2004. The forum took place in London, England, from October 15-17. Discussion themes included war and peace, democracy and fundamental rights, social justice and solidarity, corporate globalization and global justice, racism, discrimination and the far right, and environmental crisis and a sustainable planet.
The “Violence Against Women: Prevention and Resistance” workshop took place on October 16 at the London Metropolitan University campus. Larby (V-Day U.K), Heiseke (V-Day Western Europe), and Katzaova (V-Day Balkans) were all featured speakers at the event and represented an allied V-Day Europe front in presenting and discussing diverse initiatives in Europe for the prevention of violence against women. The workshop drew a large crowd of twenty people. In addition to the V-Day team, Professor Liz Kelly from the university’s Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit also spoke at the workshop.
Later that night, V-Day Europe presented a very special performance of “The Vagina Monologues” to celebrate women attendees at the forum and to honor all people who fight to end violence against women. The performance took place at the London Welsh Association. A crowd of 200 activists and other conference attendees filled the room to capacity and enjoyed the show.
Both the “Violence Against Women: Prevention and Resistance” workshop and “The Vagina Monologues” performance had great success. Europe is even more fully engaged in V-Day’s movement to end violence.
Following is the press release from Equality Now:
TWO MAASAI GIRLS IN KENYA FORCED TO UNDERGO GENITAL MUTILATION EQUALITY NOW URGES KENYAN AUTHORITIES TO HOLD PERPETRATORS ACCOUNTABLE
September 17, 2004 – While the Kenyan government is hosting an international conference on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Nairobi this week, two Kenyan sisters mutilated two weeks ago are calling for justice in their case. Santeyian and Dorcas Keiwua, 16 and 14 years old, respectively, were cut on August 28, 2004 in their home in Orkiriaine at Lolonga Division of Narok District.
When relatives first threatened her with genital mutilation in 2001, Santeyian Keiwua escaped from her home and reported the matter to the District Officer. She was sent to boarding school. Afraid to return home during summer vacations for fear of being cut, she spent the summers of 2001 and 2002 at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Centre. The Centre sent Santeyian home in April 2003, after reconciling with her mother, who undertook not to subject her or her sister, Dorcas, to genital mutilation. Santeyian continued to attend boarding school and visited home during holidays. On the morning of August 28, 2004, while their mother was away, Santeyian and Dorcas were awakened by their brother, who told them they were going to be circumcised. Although they tried to resist, Santeyian and Dorcas were threatened and beaten. Santeyian was tied down and cut by a circumciser with the assistance of their brother and six neighbors.
Immediately upon her return, Santeyian’s and Dorcas’ mother rushed her daughters to a hospital and reported the case to the District Officer. Two of the women who helped hold the girls down during the cutting were arrested the same day and later released on bail. The others, including the girls’ brother, ran away and have not yet been caught. Santeyian and Dorcas remained in hospital for nine days. They are now staying at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Centre because they fear they will be forced into marriage if they return home.
Agnes Pareyio, founder and director of the Tasaru Centre, called on the Kenyan authorities to take action. “I urge Kenyan authorities to be proactive and arrest all of the people who circumcised the Keiwua sisters,” she said. “The government should use this case to demonstrate that such blatant violations of Kenya’s anti-FGM law will not be tolerated.” Equality Now Africa Regional Director Faiza Jama Mohamed joined this call for justice, noting the need for systematic enforcement of the law. “The anti-FGM law on the books is clearly not enough to deter the continuing genital mutilation of girls. If this practice is to end,” she said, “it is absolutely essential for Kenyan authorities to enforce the law strictly by bringing all perpetrators to justice in all reported FGM cases.” Equality Now has written to Kenyan authorities, including the District Commissioner, urging them to follow-up on the case and arrest all the perpetrators.
Although Kenya passed a law prohibiting FGM in 2001, Kenyan authorities have been slow to respond to the resistance to end FGM, despite grassroots efforts around the country to stop the practice. In August 2004, the Tasaru Girls Rescue Centre organized an alternative rite of passage in Melelo, a 10-15 minute drive from the home of the Keiwua sisters. And despite much activism in the West Pokot district, in August alone, more than 100 schoolgirls were subjected to FGM there. In June 2004, Equality Now convened the first international meeting of ex-circumcisers in Nairobi, highlighting pan-African grassroots efforts to end FGM. The Tasaru Girls Rescue Centre is a grantee of Equality Now’s Fund for Grassroots Activism to End FGM.
Please help Equality Now end FGM. To make a contribution go to:
https://www-secure.earthlink.net/www.equalitynow.org/member_joinform_en.html
Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women. Equality Now’s Women’s Action Network is comprised of more than 25,000 organizations and individuals in more than 160 countries. For more information, please visit www.equalitynow.org
To read more about the V-Day safe house in Narok, Kenya: http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/press/release/020405
A Percentage Of All Profits To Be Donated To V-Day
“The Good Body,” a new play written and performed by V-Day Founder Eve Ensler opens on Broadway at New York City’s BoothTheater with previews starting on Friday, October 22, 2004 and the official opening on Monday, November 15th.
In “The Good Body,” Ensler turns her unique eye to the entirety of the female form. Whether undergoing Botox injections or living beneath burkhas, women of all cultures and backgrounds feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in, to be accepted, to be “good.” Merging these cross-cultural explorations with her own personal journey to come to terms with her “less-than-flat, post-40s stomach,” Ensler’s “The Good Body” is a work the San Francisco Chronicle called “passionate, funny, frank, revealing, even shocking.” “The Good Body” will mark Ms. Ensler’s Broadway debut.
“The Good Body” begins previews on October 22, has an official opening on November 15, and plays a limited twelve-week engagement through January 16, 2005. Prior to opening, the performance schedule is: Monday thru Saturday at 8pm; matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm. After opening, the performance schedule is: Tuesday thru Saturday at 8pm; matinees Wednesday & Saturday at 2pm, Sunday at 3pm.
Tickets, $80, are now available through Tele-charge, 212-239-6200 or www.telecharge.com. Tickets will also be available at the box office of the Booth Theatre (222 West 45th Street, New York City) beginning Friday, October 8. Groups orders can be arranged through Tele-charge.
V-Day would like to thank the producers of “The Good Body,” for their support and generosity, as a percentage of all profits from the play’s Broadway engagement will be donated to V-Day. A strong compliment to V-Day’s mission to end violence against women and girls, “The Good Body” explores the internal as well as external violence that societies place upon the female body.
For more information about the play, visit http://www.thegoodbody.org
Click here to read the press release.
Listen to an audio clip.
Vaginas: An Owner’s Manual (Avalon Publishing Group, June 2004) will host a book party on Wednesday, October 13 in New York City.
Eve Ensler, V-Day founder and “The Vagina Monologues” playwright, will attend.
Vaginas: An Owner’s Manual, by Dr Carol Livoti, OBGYN, and her daughter, Elizabeth Topp, provides an engaging examination of female anatomy and reproductive health.
Vaginas: An Owner’s Manual, Benefit Book Launch
Wednesday, October 13th, 2004, 8pm
The Social Club
14 East 27th Street (Between Fifth and Madison)
New York City
Tickets: $15 – $30
For reservations and information, call 888.303.9131
**Celeb Partners Isabella Rossellini, Rosario Dawson, Gina Gershon and others join in
New York – Leading actors and musicians joined with women from all walks of life on Monday evening for an evening of entertainment designed to inspire and encourage women to vote in the upcoming presidential election. The evening kicked-off with an extraordinary photo shoot by renowned photographer Roxanne Lowit featuring 50 of these women in a group photograph to be used in a new media campaign called 50 Million Women Count!
The campaign will use the photo “50 Women Ask 50 Million More” in educational outreach and advertising designed to persuade women voters to take ten more women with them to the Polls on Election Day. MoveOn.org, V-Day and Planned Parenthood Action Fund partnered in the event, which was followed by a night of stirring performances at the Apollo Theater.
More than 50 million women were eligible to vote but did not cast ballots in 2000. Twenty-two million of these women are unmarried women. In 2000, if unmarried women voted at the same rate as married women, over six million more votes would have been counted and women would have been the deciding “x” factor in that very close election.
“Show us a woman without an opinion and we’ll show you a woman without a pulse,” said Laura Dawn, event and cultural director for MoveOn.org. “We want women and their opinions to count in the electoral process.”
According to V-Day founder/Playwright Eve Ensler, “Voting is a form of activism – we are here today to encourage all women to vote and to make ending the rampant violence against women which affects one in three women in the world a central focus of politics alongside jobs, healthcare, and security.”
Gloria Feldt President of Planned Parenthood said 50 Million Women Count! underscores the importance of women voters in 2004. “It’s more important than ever that women stand up for their rights, indeed their very lives, and participate fully in our democracy,” Feldt said. “Our fundamental freedom to make personal decisions about our health and our lives is profoundly influenced by whether we exercise our right to vote.”
Celebrity participants in the “50 Women Ask 50 Million More” photograph included Vanessa Carlton, Toni Childs, Kate Clinton, Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda, Gina Gershon, Hazelle Goodman, Jehmu Greene, Miss Info, Joya, Charlotte Martin, Tony Pinkins, Shiva Rose, Isabella Rosellini, Gloria Steinem, Marie Wilson, and others.
For more information on 50 Million Women Count! visit
www.50millionwomencount.org,
www.MoveOn.org,
www.plannedparenthoodvotes.org,
www.vday.org.
TOUR FEATURES V-DAY FOUNDER/PLAYWRIGHT EVE ENSLER ALONGSIDE COMMUNITY LEADERS AND ACTIVISTS RALLYING WOMEN TO VOTE TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Itinerary:
Miami, FL September 19-20;
Cincinnati, OH September 21-22;
Columbus, OH September 22;
Boulder, CO September 27-28
-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls, is taking its grassroots voting campaign – V Is For Vote – on the road to inspire women to vote and to elevate violence against women as an important issue in the 2004 Elections. Eve Ensler, V-Day Founder and Artistic Director/Playwright, will lead the V-team through Florida, Ohio and Colorado. In each city, the V Is For Vote delegation will meet with local women’s shelters and programs, activist groups, students, politicians, anti-violence, arts and community leaders to promote voting as activism and a vote to end violence against women.
The campaign which launched this spring encourages V-Day activists, local women and college students to declare themselves a “V-Posse Leader,” thereby organizing get out the vote activities, educational events and outreach around violence against women as an election year issue. V-Posse leaders are registered in 44 states and the District of Columbia.
On the link between the campaign and V-Day’s mission, Ensler stated, “Each year, thousands of V-Day activists stand up to end violence against women educating thousands of people and raising over $25 million. These women and men are every day leaders in their communities in the fight to end violence against women. Voting IS another form of activism, the time has come to take that vagina power to the polls!”
V Is For Vote Itinerary Highlights:
Miami, FL:
September 20, 2004 – At 11:00am, Miami-Dade College’s North Campus will hold a V Is For Vote rally and voter registration event to get out the vagina vote. Afterward, Eve will be recognized for her activism as part of Miami Dade’s inaugural Civic Revolutionary Series to honor prominent activists. While in Miami, Eve and V-Day staff will hold a press conference at a local domestic violence shelter, which will include a discussion of how violence forces women into shelters, and how battered women can vote to end violence. There will also be a briefing on the shelter’s history and appreciation of Vagina Warrior staff members.
Cincinnati, OH:
September 21, 2004 – The V Is For Vote [Vagina Vote] tour pulls in to Ohio for Evening with Eve Ensler a private reception for the local domestic violence and sexual assault centers..
September 22, 2004 – A press conference with the Rape Crisis & Abuse Center of Hamilton County will take place at the Community Law Center Building. Eve and the center staff will discuss the Vote against Violence and how their loss of VAWA funding impacts the sexual assault services to women and girls in Cincinnati.
Columbus, OH:
September 22, 2004 – Eve and local Columbus politicians and prominent figures in the arts community will hold a press conference downtown at the Hyatt, 4:00pm, to discuss local violence against women issues and voting as activism. A V Is For Vote rally with Eve, local politicians, and prominent figures in the local arts community, as well as a Vagina Vote Essay reading, will take place at 5:30pm at the Ohio Statehouse in Capitol Square.
Boulder, CO:
September 27, 2004 – Ensler will speak at Colorado University, Boulder about her work with V-Day. The program starts at 4:00pm and will take place on campus at the Glenn Miller Ballroom. The first 1200 audience members will be accomodated, no reservations necessary.
September 28, 2004 – In a state that’s currently a national center of attention for violence against women, Eve and V-Day Boulder organizers will hold a Vagina Vote rally at 12:00pm outside the Boulder courthouse. Former Senator Dorothy Rupert is scheduled to speak. Later that day, at The Dairy Center for the Arts, 5:30pm, Eve will also attend and give a speech at the Get Out the Women’s Vote Training.
The tour wraps in Boulder but the V Is For Vote Campaign will continue through the election with V-Posse leaders holding localized events and get out the vote gatherings. The tour will encourage young women and men to become active in local as well as national political issues.
THE CAMPAIGN – V IS FOR VOTE:
V Is For Vote is a grassroots voting campaign created with and by the thousands of local V-Day activists and organizers in the U.S. V-Day is outreaching to the political candidates urging them to make Violence Against Women a central issue of their campaign platform alongside jobs, education, security and healthcare, not a sideline or women’s issue. Ultimately, V-Day will mobilize its activism into political power through V Is For Vote as V-Day supporters “Vote to End Violence.” V Is For Vote. The message is simple, but for millions of women and children around the world, it could mean the difference of a lifetime.
THE ISSUE: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:
Why should violence against women and girls be central to the 2004 election? A two-year study conducted by the Center for the Advancement of Women shows that women want a new movement with new priorities. In the nationally representative study 92% of women identified that reducing domestic and sexual violence is their top policy priority, followed by pay equity, childcare and healthcare. In addition, a nationally representative poll conducted by Penn and Schoen demonstrated that 92% of Americans believe that violence against women is an important problem that is not getting enough attention and the majority (55%) thinks that law enforcement agencies are not doing enough to prevent it.
Unmarried women are the LARGEST group of people not participating in our democracy, and have the greatest potential to change the outcome of this election. Sixteen million unmarried women are unregistered; more than 22 million didn’t vote in 2000. Over 75% of V-Day activists are college age and fall within this category.
About V-Day:
V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Activist/V-Day Founder Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. In 2004, over 2000 V-Day events will take place in the U.S. and around the world. To date, V-Day has raised over $25 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted national media and PSA campaigns, funded over 2000 community-based anti-violence programs, reopened shelters, and built safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt, India and Iraq.
For more information on V Is For Vote: www.vday.org/vote
To learn more about how to get involved with V-Day, visit www.vday.org
NOW (The National Organization of Women) and The NOW Foundation announce their second annual Intrepid Awards Gala to honor women who embody the definition of “Intrepid”—resolutely courageous, fearless and bold. The event will honor Eve Ensler, V-Day Founder and Artistic Director/Playwright/Performer; Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers; Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer/composer/scholar of African American culture; and Lateefah Simon, executive director of the Center for Young Women’s Development. Proceeds from the Intrepid Awards Gala support the National Organization for Women and the National Organization for Women Foundation as they work toward full equality for all women and girls.
2nd Annual Intrepid Awards Gala, sponsored by NOW
Thursday, September 9th, 2004, 6:30pm
The Decatur House, Washington D.C.
To reserve tickets or for more information, visit http://www.now.org/organization/gala/2004
YANAR MOHAMMED OF IRAQ AND “ZOYA” OF AFGHANISTAN IN NYC FOR “WOMEN AND POWER: OUR TIME TO LEAD” CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY OMEGA INSTITUTE AND V-DAY
Yanar Mohammed, founder of the Organisation for Women’s Freedom (OWFI) in Iraq, and Zoya, a member of The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), will be in New York City for the Omega and V-Day “Women And Power:Our Time To Lead” Conference and will discuss the current state of women and impact of war in their respective countries.
Both women will be speaking at the “WOMEN & POWER: OUR TIME TO LEAD” conference taking place from September 10-13 at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City, presented by Omega Institute and V-Day. Some of the most powerful women in the fields of business, politics, education and the arts discuss how women can change the world from the inside out.
Renowned speakers include: Jane Fonda, Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, Carole Black, Sarah Jones, Pat Mitchell and more.
Yanar Mohammed is the Director of The Organization of Women’s Freedom (OWFI), a group that works to stop the atrocities against Iraqi women and defend their rights. One of the organization’s main projects is the development of a battered women’s shelter in Baghdad to protect women who are fleeing from violence and “honor killings.” In addition, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Equality newspaper(Al-Mousawat).
One of RAWA’s main spokeswomen and representatives, Zoya was the subject of the 2002 book Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom, published by William Morrow. Born in Kabul in 1976, she grew up during the wars that ravaged Afghanistan. Her parents were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists. Zoya is an active member of RAWA now and works in RAWA projects for Afghanistan women and refugee camps in Pakistan and inside Afghanistan. She has also represented RAWA in many events and conferences in the US, Italy, Spain, Germany etc. to raise awareness on the plight of Afghan women.
Both women have vast experience on the ground in their countries as activists working to help make conditions better for women and all people.
CODEPINK: Women for Peace, the Global Fund for Women, the Global Justice and Peace Ministry of The Riverside Church, and The Nation Institute present an evening to celebrate women¹s passion, creativity and strength in saying no to war and yes to peace and justice. The event will feature Eve Ensler, V-Day Founder and Artistic Director/Playwright/Performer; Amy Goodman,”Democracy Now!” Host; Aya De Leon, Hip-Hop Performance Poet; Cynthia McKinney, Former Congresswoman; Noe Venable, Singer-Songwriter; and the young women of We Got Issues!
WOMEN AGAINST WAR: AN EVENING OF MUSIC AND INSPIRATION
Saturday, August 28th, 7pm
The Riverside Church Nave,
490 Riverside Drive at 120th Street, NYC
Advance Tickets Only: $10.
Call 1-800-838-3006 or visit
http://www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/407
Congressional resolutions on the unsolved murders of women in Juarez and Chihuahua are currently gathering support in both the House and the Senate. Contact your members of Congress today and urge them to support these important initiatives! The aim is to get as many co-sponsors on both the House and Senate resolutions before Congress adjourns in early October. August is an opportune moment for action. Not only should activists send letters, but because members of Congress are on recess in August and therefore are in their district offices, it is an ideal time for activists to seek meetings with their representatives and Senators to discuss the Juarez murders and encourage them to co-sponsor the resolutions.
The House and Senate resolutions condemn the murders, express condolences to the victims’ families, and recommend actions the State Department should carry out to assist the investigations.
The House Resolution (H Res 466) was introduced in November 2003 by Hilda Solis (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Christopher Shays (R-CT); Martin Sabo (D-MN), and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).
Mr. Ramstad represents Cynthia Kiecker, a U.S. citizen tortured into confessing to the murder of a woman from Chihuahua.
The Senate Resolution (S Res 392) was introduced in June 2004 by Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
These resolutions are an excellent way to educate members of Congress about the Juarez and Chihuahua murders and encourage the U.S. government to become more involved in resolving this crisis. Please urge your members of Congress to co-sponsor House Resolution 466 and Senate Resolution 392. (See how-to below.)
Tell your members of Congress that they should co-sponsor the resolution
because:
- Over 370 women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua since 1993. Over 100 of the victims were sexually assaulted prior to their murders and these cases are believed to be related.
- The authorities have done little to investigate the murders. In fact, only one person has been convicted of any of the more than 100 serial killings, and only for one murder.
- The authorities have used torture to obtain confessions from several people, although no physical evidence connects them to the crimes.
- The Juarez murders are a bi-national issue: U.S. citizens have been arrested for the murders, have been victims to the murders, and have lost loved ones to the murders.
- Mexico will respond to U.S. and international pressure. As a result of recent international pressure, the federal Mexican government appointed a special commissioner to prevent violence against women in Juarez and also named a special prosecutor to investigate some of the murders.
- International pressure must continue to ensure that the Mexican government implements this plan.
- House Resolution 466 and Senate Resolution 392 will send a clear signal that the United States is concerned about these murders and willing to assist in the investigations.
Click here for background information about the unsolved murders in Juarez and Chihuahua.
http://www.wola.org/Mexico/Juarez/whitepaper.htm
Concern about violence against women in Juarez and Chihuahua has been building steadily in the House and Senate. Click here for information about congressional actions regarding this issue.
For more information, contact Laurie Freeman at lfreeman@wola.org or 202-797-2171.
How to contact your members of Congress:
`To contact your member of Congress by telephone, you can call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress. Ask to speak to their foreign policy aide, and be sure to tell them that you’re a constituent and that this issue matters to you. You can also send a message via email. To contact members of the House of Representatives, go to www.house.gov and select “Write Your Representative” to send an email message. To contact your Senators, go to www.senate.gov, select “Choose a State” (in the box under “Find your Senators”), and email address forms for both Senators will appear.
To check if your Representative is already a co-sponsor of the House Resolution, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and type in H Res 466 in the box titled “Bill Number” under the heading “Search Bill Text 108th Congress (2003-2004).” The text of the resolution will appear. Towards the top of the screen, click on “Bill Summary and Status,” and then on “Co-sponsors” to consult an up-to-date list.
To check if your Senators are already co-sponsors of the Senate Resolution, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and type in S Res 392 in the box titled “Bill Number” under the heading “Search Bill Text 108th Congress (2003-2004).” The text of the resolution will appear. Towards the top of the screen, click on “Bill Summary and Status,” and then on “Co-sponsors” to consult an up-to-date list.
More information available at http://www.wola.org/Mexico/hr/ciudad_juarez/congressional_concern.htm