this global violence against women will no longer be tolerated

[niyad]

This Global Violence Against Women Will No Longer Be Tolerated
The Delhi Rape, Savile, Ohio – Extreme acts of sexual violence seem to be everywhere. In response, a worldwide day of action has been called
by Eve Ensler

There seems to be two types of risings on the planet right now. One is a sexual violence typhoon that is impacting most countries in the world. It's been happening forever but, like climate change, it's suddenly impossible to ignore. I first noticed more ominous waves during the US elections, the extreme and ignorant anti-women policies perpetrated by the Republicans. Then, like climate storms, floods and fires, specific extreme manifestations began to gain attention. A group of boys allegedly raping a girl in Steubenville, Ohio; a 14-year-old girl shot in the head for insisting girls have the right to learn in Pakistan; the gang rape and murder of a girl on a bus in Delhi; and in Britain the revelations that Jimmy Savile was able to abuse hundreds of girls over six decades, while British institutions from the BBC to Broadmoor turned a blind eye.

And, like the response to climate change, first there was an attempt at denial, then there is the blaming of the victim: a woman raped in Dubai fined after telling police she had been drinking; a priest in Italy telling women they are beaten because they don't clean the house well and wear tight clothes; women in the US military raped by their comrades who then use that as proof that they never belonged there in the first place; raped girls in Rochdale being ignored by police and social workers because they were seen as damaged goods who were "making their own choices". It goes on and on.

Like climate change, only the patriarchs with power seem to be blind to the magnitude of the horrors. As a matter of fact they are engineering it. There is a rape culture – a mindset that seems to have infected every aspect of our lives: the raping of the Earth through ecological destruction by the corporate powerful, pillaging resources for their own coffers with no concern for the Earth, or the indigenous peoples, or the notion of reciprocity; the rape of the poor through exploitation, land grabs, neglect; the rape of women's bodies through physical violence and commodification, where a girl can be purchased for less than the cost of a mobile phone. The modelling and licensing of this rape culture is done by those protected by power and privilege – presidents, celebrities, sports stars, police officers, television executives, priests – with impunity.

But there is another rising. In the last year I have travelled the world for One Billion Rising, the global campaign that is a call for the one billion women who have been beaten or raped and the men who love them to strike, rise and dance on 14 February to end violence against women and girls. This movement is moving through the planet with a force and urgency unlike anything we have experienced – it is what the Indian activist Kamla Bhasin calls a "feminist tsunami". Across 182 countries entire communities are planning to rise and voice their outrage and dreams. Nurses, teachers, domestic workers, indigenous leaders, fisherwomen, peasants, scholars, union organisers, all have come together.

. . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/13-1

[niyad]

1. kick for monday crowd

[ChirpChirp]

6. Did one of you put this petition through

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/end-exclusion-women-united-states-selective-service-program-make-selective-service-gender-neutral/kj1cFkc8

"End the exclusion of women from the United States Selective service program. Change the Selective Service program, in order for women to participate in the program, just as their male counterparts. With all the same requirements prescribed by law. Make this change retroactive to include women who are not too old to be drafted. End this dishonor on women, and allow them to serve their nation without an outdated law. Woman ages 18 through 25 and living in the U.S. would be required just as men ages 18 through 25 to register with Selective Service. This would help dispel the notion that women are of a weaker gender and would enhance gender equality."

I would of asked in my own thread but I do not have enough posts. I am not sure how I feel about this petition.

[niyad]

7. welcome to DU--no, I didn't know anything about this, so thank you for bringing it to our

attention.

[polly7]

2. Thanks for another excellent article niyad.

I love this site for all the photos they've been uploading showing the many protests in India and around the world.

http://www.demotix.com/india-rape-protests?page=1

After the death of a young student in Delhi, the victim of gang-rape on a bus, young Indian women have started to prepare to defend themselves by joining self-defense classes organised by Bhopal sports and youth welfare department.

[niyad]

3. thank you. it is disheartening, though, to see how little interest there is here for such articles.

will have to check out your link later. apparently one has to join to see any of the pics? and connection is very slow this morning.

[polly7]

4. I think they're getting a lot more attention than they used to,

maybe because they're being posted in different groups and forums here, too. I know I'm not alone in appreciating them here!



I had no idea you had to join Demotix to see the pictures .... I don't remember doing that, but I guess I might have.

[niyad]

5. . . .