ONE BILLION RISING
On Thursday February 14th
of 2013, women and men of all around the world celebrated together the end of
the campaign ONE BILLION RISING that was an action day, and, above all, a dance
day that claimed for the end of violence against women. It was created by Eve
Ensler, an American writer, philosopher and activist, author of the famous play
“The Vagina Monologues”.
Biografía Eve Ensler
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| Eve Ensler |
The name of this movement is
due to the “V” letter that begins the word “Vagina” and “Valentine” as well
(the saint of Love, as the contrary to hate, in many western countries). That
is why this project was done on February 14th.
Every year, between
February 1st and March 8th (the International Women’s
Day) several groups of volunteers worldwide perform the Ensler’s play to get
founds for helping regional programs that fight violence against women. So far,
the project V-day has gathered more than $40 million, and educated millions of
people about domestic violence and the efforts to get rid of it.
Video: One
Billion Rising fashmob
Launched on the 2012
Valentine’s Day, the ONE BILLION RAISING campaign started as a call to a world
demonstration before the statistical data that “one out of three women
worldwide will be beat up, harassed or raped throughout her life.” With an
estimated world population of 7 billion women, this percentage would correspond
with more than one billion women.
Video: Short
Film about One Billion Rising Women in the World
During the whole year this
campaign was developed. People from 206 countries join in to make actions and
protests; writers, thinkers, workers, students, poets, dancers, members of
parliament, mayors, State representatives, famous people…, as well as 13.000
organizations all over the world, including
Amnesty International, NOW, Human Rights Campaign, European Women's
Lobby, Women’s Center of Information and development (CIDEM in Spanish) and MTV
among others.
Moreover, UN also joined
them with an activity in its headquarters that day, as well as the communiqué
of the Secretary-General of United Nations, Ban Ki-moon and the words of the UN
Women Executive Director, Michele Bachelet.
Video: ONU
Mujeres. I am Rising (Michelle Bachelet’s Message)
It got also the support of
UNITE (Deputy Secretary General of United Nations, Jan Kenneth Eliasson) The
European Union also joined this campaign with a communiqué of the European
Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding,
as well as the support of Štefan
Füle, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood
Policy, who danced with several female members of The European Parliament.
Video: One
Billion Rising Flasgmob at the European Parliament
It has been requested in
Brussels that the year 2015 should be declared “European Year against Gender-Based
Violence.” Among other world authorities that participated, there are also the
Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and the British Prime Minister David
Cameron.
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| Calcuta |
When this campaign started,
many people criticized it of being absurd and extravagant. Today, this feminist
wave or “tsunami” –as the English-speaking press has baptized it- is crossing
every single border. It is a global manifestation to stop violence against
women. It has been a global movement: from the most remote places of the
planet, people confirmed their agreement with the event, and many of them were
men.
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| New Delhi |
It is not a resistance
action, of fight or combat. It is not an action to go against. It is not an
action of disturbances and screams of hate. It is an action of commemoration
and transmission of a message through dance in order to be in tune with
feminine energies.
Contemplating this action reminded
us that the lack of communication has been a form of punishment used by the
patriarchal society in many spheres. Its tool has been “silence”. Like this we
have lived for centuries under the “silence law”. From prisons –where the conflictive
inmate is imprisoned in punishment cells, and put in isolation, therefore, to a
lack of communication-, to the punishments applied to children when they are
isolated from the rest of the class. Silence has been the “cover” to be able to
act with impunity.
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| Manila |
Keeping this law is a way
of domination, domestication and control. This is why several “silences” about
investigations, complots, economic operation or just “the things that happen at
home” keep taking place.
From the most developed
countries to the most undeveloped ones, women’s mistreatment has been “normal”;
physical, psychic and moral mistreatment. However, illiteracy, poverty and the lack
of health resources have been also a way of mistreatment. This has been women’s
“environment”.
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| Berlin |
Of course, the deep changes
we need to stop women’s mistreatment will take a lot of time. These changes
should happen not only in men but also among women that have held up and made this
humiliating situation possible. The fact that now the “silence law” has been
broken is without doubt, an important step forward.
Under the “silence law”
pederasty happened on the Catholic Church, and it is not a secret anymore; under
the “silence law” economical maneuvers impoverish most of the countries all
over the world. Today, there are well known names of those who gambled with
someone else’s necessities. Under the
“silence law” our female neighbor’s bruises appear, in spite that we know she
is beaten by her husband.
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| Belgrade |
Women’s situation in this
planet has become a mankind illness; an illness that is not recognized as such.
We could say it is more an epidemic or a pandemic than just an illness. Anyway,
it is a chronic process.
From Feminine Inspiration
we believe that, as with other different illness, the first step is to
acknowledge we are sick. That is the base of different therapies like those
given in Alcoholic Anonymous, or many other help groups: The first step is to
acknowledge we are sick. Only then, healing resources will appear.
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| Hong Kong |
In this case, even though
it is a mankind illness, it is the woman who suffers it. However, she is not
aware that it is an illness. When a mistreated woman gives another opportunity
to the man who mistreats her because she is waiting for his change, she is
giving him another opportunity to mistreat her. Relatively speaking, it is like
if a woman with cancer gives another opportunity to her cancer over and over.
If that cancer didn’t kill her at first time, it will do it maybe at the second
or third one.
Our proposal from several
years ago is that a woman must run away when she experiences the first
mistreatment. She should move to another city or country. It is really useless to
forgive him or to wait for his change. Of course, we could think: “But… must
she leave everything she has, beside having been mistreated?” The answer is
YES! She must run away because her life is more valuable than everything else
she is leaving behind.
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| Brussels |
Unfortunately, we know this
is not a universal recipe because it is absolutely unthinkable in many
countries worldwide. Nevertheless, sometimes things are unthinkable until
someone dares to think about them.
We strongly believe it is
very important that every single woman –and also every single man- should
realize that mistreatment is a sort of illness. If we had a female friend with
a physical disease, we would give her our help, advice, support, as well as our
company in the hospital, or our persistence to get her on treatment. However,
if we were before a mistreatment case, it would seem we are before a “private
area” that nobody speaks about but everybody disguises it.
It is not a private area!
As many articles say: One
out of three women suffer mistreatment worldwide. When someone mistreats a
woman, all women are being mistreated.
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| Washington |
What has surprised and made
us feel better, is that the call to promote this increasing awareness to
women’s situation hasn’t had a claimed style -with the amount of violence that
it usually has- but it has been proposed through an artistic expression: dance.
Communication, solidarity, complicity has been settled on the body, that body
that has been humiliated and violated for millenniums.
That is our hope: we are at
the dawn of a new way of thinking. In this case, we have felt it through the
awareness of millions of people –males and females- to unmask an illness that directly
affects women. With art, we will evolve and renovate ourselves. With art, we
will paint a new sunrise.
We want to share with you
one of the promotional dances videos from New Delhi:
As well as in other paces
This is the link of the
official song “Break the Chain” by “The Flash Mobs” that explains why this
proposal is through dancing and singing.
We don’t know if one
billion people danced, yet many millions did it. That has, for sure, created an
energy, an intention that will have its effects, even though we are not able to
assess it.
As healers, we have faith
that creational and healing processes work that way.
LET US JOIN THE DANCE!
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