One year ago today, V-Day, a global activist movement, began a call to action based on the statistic that one in three women in the world will be beaten or raped in her lifetime, adding up to one billion women and girls. V-Day organized a One Billion Rising campaign that is taking place today, February 14th, 2013. Women and men in 203 countries are uniting in the largest day of mass action to stop violence against women and girls everywhere. Participants will express their passion for the issue through dance and strike.
You may be wondering why dancing is relevant to violence against women. Eve Ensler, V-Day’s founder and artistic director, explains, “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.”
V-Day invites you to go out, dance, rise up, and demand an end to this epidemic. Find a rising near you by visiting OneBillionRising.org.
Photos via UNLV.org and Vimeo
