As International Women’s Day, 8 March, begins, we are excited to share this special note from our ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE Global Coordinators and highlights from this year’s campaign.
Risings are still happening throughout Canada and across the globe, please be sure to CHECK OUT our event map to find one near you.
We would like to say a huge, collective THANK YOU to activists and groups around the world for the incredible risings that took place on and around 14 February 2014, and for the risings taking place throughout Canada and the world tomorrow on International Women’s Day.
We thank everyone for going deeper into the justice issues in each community, city, and country, for coming together to address impunity, for gathering and dancing together to show our collective strength and energy in our demand to end violence against women and girls. We thank you for your amazing creativity, artistry, energy, courage, and determination.
As global coordinators, we are in awe of the work that you did to deepen the campaign in your communities, and humbled by the broad and committed engagement. Through your work we saw multiple sectors coming together to demand justice, and we saw coalitions being formed and led by grassroots activists who have been doing the work of ending violence for years. We thank you for affirming what a global solidarity movement truly means – people coming together for a uniquely local, yet shared global vision of a world where women can one day live with equality, freedom, respect, and dignity.
We encourage activists all over the world to keep Rising for Justice until the violence stops!
– Rossana Abueva, Fartuun Adan, Sajjad Akbar, Iman Aoun, Abha Bhaiya, Kamla Bhasin, Nicoletta Billi, Rada Boric, Delia Cohen, Nico Corradini, Anne-christine d’Adesky, Jason Day, Ines Eichmuller, European Women’s Lobby, Laura Flanders, Allison Gars, Fahima Hashim, Karin Heisecke, Colani Hlatjwako, Lindsey Horvath, Khushi Kabir, Marsha Pamela López Calderón, Dianne Madray, Marya Meyer, Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende, Elena Montorsi, Naomi Mwaura, Andres Naime, Mbachi Joyce Ng’oma, Mathamkaze Ramakau, Pat Reuss, Nighat Rizvi, Nyasha Sengayi, Zubeida Shaik, Ivana Smith, Thea Tadiar, Hannah Tarindwa, Isatou Touray, Mily Trevino-Sauceda, Karabo Tshikube, and Monique Wilson
2014 HIGHLIGHTS
BANGLADESH, Khushi Kabir: “Over a hundred thousand people organized One Billion Rising for Justice manifestations all over the country…” more >
CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES, Dianne Madray: “This movement allowed so many of us to recognise the theme “Rising for Justice” and understand that by standing together as Collated Regional Teams from around the Caribbean we can create a VOICE for the Caribbean at large…” more >
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA, Marsha Pamela Lopez Calderon: “‘Rise for Justice’ events took place in Panamá, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, República Dominicana, and Brazil, with a total number of 60 One Billion Rising for Justice events taking place across the region…” more >
CROATIA, Rada Boric: “Women’s groups prepared and read a Protest letter to the Croatian Judiciary demanding justice for women victims of all forms of violence, including justice for women survivors of sexual violence during the war/conflict in the 90’s…” more >
INDIA, Abha Bhaiya & Kamla Bhasin: “People of various religions, multiple sexual identities, different ethnic/ tribal groups, as well women and men spread throughout rural areas of the country, came together for this campaign and provided a fundamental shift…” more >
ITALY, Nico Corradini: “… more than 150 Risings took place in 119 cities in Italy. Young people and students shared thoughts of the larger meaning of Justice: respect, value, guarantee for equality and social justice, pointing EDUCATION as crucial starting point…” more >
LESOTHO, Mathamkaze Ramakau: “In Lesotho, a rising activity for young women of Lesotho was organised after realising that young women often lack a space where they can talk about issues affecting them in this country…” more >
MEXICO, Andres Naime & Rosi Orozco: “Thousands danced in town plazas all over the country. The rising at the Mexico City Alameda Park resulted in the closing of one of the major prostitution dancing halls in the city. Because of the campaign, one girl who had been missing was found, after her photo was seen at the Rising at the Alameda…” more >
PERU, Jason Day: “The participation of so many groups from so many sectors has changed the culture – from football players wearing One Billion Rising t-shirts at their games, and construction workers committing to treating women with respect and putting an end to sexual harassment on the streets…” more >
THE PHILIPPINES, Monique Wilson: “The One Billion Rising for Justice campaign brought to the forefront all the intersectional issues that continue to perpetuate the violence being done to women and girls – poverty, economic exploitation, environmental injustice, corruption, militarisation – and brought huge media attention to who the grassroots women’s movement consider to be the main perpetrators of the continued state instigated violence: the Philippine government led by the Philippine President Aquino…” more >
SOUTH AFRICA, Barbara Mhangami Ruwende & Zubeida Shaik: “… One Billion Rising Campaign of February 2014 has caught the attention of policymakers, raised the level of conscientiousness of ordinary South Africans, and left an irreversible mark on the psyche of those who have for years remained apathetic…” more >
SWAZILAND, Colani Hjatjwako: “One Billion Rising has helped us as women in Swaziland to realise that change will only happen when we come out as a team and work together…” more >
UNITED STATES, Allison Gars (Atlanta): “… activists, leaders, and citizens of Atlanta including Hispanic, Latino, African American, White, Transgender and more gathered at The Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to have a conversation about today’s most pressing human rights issue: violence against women and girls…” more >
UNITED STATES, Marya Meyer (Miami): “A full 30 local organizations joined the February 14 Rising, with informational tables, conversation, and literature that showed locals what they can do, empowering the entire community and taking away the sense of helplessness when facing the realities of continued violence…” more >
Check out our event map and find a V-Day benefit production of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory A Monologue A Rant and A Prayer, and Any One of Use: Words From Prison, or benefit screenings of Until The Violence Stops and What I Want My Words To Do To You near you!
Like last year we are once again calling on you to submit footage and photos from your One Billion Rising for Justice events!
We will need the highest resolution files available shared with us via Dropbox. These can be RAW footage, edited pieces, single photographs or folders with multiple images.
Simply follow the instructions at our “Share Your Media” page and add the Dropbox link of your material in the provided field.
Last year many of you submitted footage from your events that was used in our award winning short film ONE BILLION RISING. The bar has been set high as the film went on to debut at Sundance Film Festival this year, but with your help we think we can create something even bigger, we can go even deeper, and we can make an even bigger impact!
So, we are calling on you once again to submit footage and photos from your One Billion Rising for Justice events!
We will need the highest resolution files available shared with us via Dropbox. These can be RAW footage, edited pieces, single photographs or folders with multiple images.
Simply follow the instructions at our “Share Your Media” page and add the Dropbox link of your material in the provided field.
“I have never liked bullies of any kind. Whether it’s someone picking on the “fat” kid, the “retarded” kid, the “short” kid, the “black” kid, the “Asian” kid, the “gay” kid, the “girl”, cause she “hits like a girl” or is the “weaker sex”…You name it. Different “reasons”, same “bully”. The bully is the problem. The bully needs a hug, a lesson, enlightenment. The bully is the one that really feels inferior, so he/she picks on someone else to make that person feel inferior too. When I read about this organization, how people get together of their own free will and dance, use their bodies, to express their rage- outrage- around the injustice that women feel all over the world, every day- I was inspired. I am a woman. I know women. I have sisters, strong and less strong, small and less small, Asian and black, gay and straight, Indian and Native American… We are all equally deserving of respect and personal space. I will fight for that right for all of us. And we come together to do so on our stage, with our brothers and menfolk- where we express our freedom every night. And that freedom inspires others to be free. We hope this video helps. And we hope for that one day when all women and girls are able to have respect, and personal space, and to be able to express themselves in whatever way THEY feel is right for them.”
What is clear is that One Billion Rising for Justice has gone beyond a 1-day action in 190 countries. It is a global determination to end the multiple violences – racial, gender, economic and environmental – that intersect with violence against women. Women and men know a new time has come and it will be determined and directed by activists on the ground in each community who know the justice they need and deserve and what they need to do to get it.
This week in Hong Kong, thousands of women migrant workers rose and danced in the rain to end the horrific sexual, physical, and economic violations they suffer on the job. They moved with irrepressible rage, joy, determination, and unity to end the conditions and systems that destroy their bodies and humanity.
We are Here. Together. The new Here that we have made with our dedication, our bodies, our best strategies, our incessant organizing, our coalition building, our inclusiveness, our mad dancing.
Here, 14 February 2014, where we give our lives to ending all forms of oppression and all of the violences towards women. Where we work in our deepest selves to rise above our divisions and join in local, national, and global solidarity. Here, in the new world owned by no one and directed by everyone, where creativity flows and we no longer doubt the power of dance to release the trauma that has closed the gateways of our bodies and hearts. May we free and call up the fire and love.
“Dancing insists we take up space, and though it has no set direction, we go there together. Dance is dangerous, joyous, sexual, holy, disruptive, and contagious and it breaks the rules. It can happen anywhere, at anytime, with anyone and everyone, and it’s free. Dance joins us and pushes us to go further and that is why it’s at the center of ONE BILLION RISING” Eve Ensler.
As we prepare for ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE, for the escalation and the deepening of the campaign, we want to take a quick look back and ask What did dancing do?
We have seen the power of communities coming together through dance and action.
Dance broke the silence in Somalia and new laws were passed in Guatemala. It’s unified groups, it’s made people feel free, it’s broken down barriers.
Today we are asking you to please take a moment and share how dancing affected you personally, and your community as a whole. The more specific the better, tell us how dancing impacted your Rising in 2013.
We are compiling a recap of the power of dancing. Your quotes and photos may be used for social media, reports, or publication.
Please share a photo, as well as any other kind of multimedia you may have from the day so we may attach at least one visual alongside your quotes.
We appreciate your passion and activism and look forward to sharing the final document with you once we have compiled the information you send us.
“Dancing insists we take up space, and though it has no set direction, we go there together. Dance is dangerous, joyous, sexual, holy, disruptive, and contagious and it breaks the rules. It can happen anywhere, at anytime, with anyone and everyone, and it’s free. Dance joins us and pushes us to go further and that is why it’s at the center of ONE BILLION RISING” Eve Ensler.