Continue movement to end violence against women
Urges The Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler
Artists of Shadhona perform during a seminar organised by One Billion Rising Bangladesh at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the capital yesterday. Inset-Eve Ensler performs her latest unpublished piece "Rising". Photo: Palash Khan
Tony Award-winning playwright and prominent activist Eve Ensler yesterday encouraged national activists and youth leaders in Bangladesh to continue and strengthen their movement to end violence against women. In a seminar organised by One Billion Rising (OBR) Bangladesh in the capital's Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Ensler termed violence against women a global problem and the most atrocious human rights violation. “We tend to think of violence against women as something particular to a country, culture, religion…as something local. But it's not. It happens everywhere because patriarchy exists everywhere, albeit in different forms,†she said. Ensler authored the celebrated play, The Vagina Monologues, which tells through humour and honesty true stories of women's experiences regarding their bodies and sexuality. Her experiences performing the play inspired her to create Vday in 1998, a global activist movement that supports anti-violence organisations around the world, said Ensler. On the 15th anniversary of Vday, Ensler initiated the One Billion Rising (OBR) campaign, with a call for at least one billion people to walk out, rise up and demand an end to violence against women and girls worldwide on February 14, 2013. “OBR is what you make of it,†explained Ensler, adding that every community, group and country was defining the nature and form of resistance of the campaign in its own way. Over 182 countries have pledged to rise in solidarity with the global movement. In Bangladesh, the campaign, called “Uddomey Uttoroney Shotokotiâ€, will be carried out in collaboration with different stakeholders. Ensler congratulated the local activists and hoped that Bangladesh would set an example for the rest of the world. “There is a rising happening across the planet,†said Ensler, highlighting the recent movement in India following the gang rape and death of a girl in Delhi. “The good women and men understand that the time is here that women start to live in security, without fear and oppression,†she said. “February 14 is not the end, but the beginning, a turning point,†said veteran women's rights activist Khushi Kabir. Dialogues were held at the seminar with young women sharing personal stories of violence and suggesting ways to take the movement forward. In the evening, a cultural show featuring music, dance and performances by Vday Dhaka, Nagorik, Shadhona, and OBR Bangladesh team was held. The performances include monologues based on Bangladeshi women's experiences and reading out translated excerpts of Ensler's latest book “I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around The Worldâ€.
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