Ever since Eve Ensler, playwright of “The Vagina Monologues” and creator of the anti-violence organization, V-Day, arrived on the scene in 1998, she’s worked to remove those global blinders that we as Americans are so fond of wearing.
On Saturday, April 12, V-Day hosted its 10-year anniversary celebration turned call to action at the New Orleans Arena.
Ensler’s event, titled “V to the Tenth,” initiated a dialogue among global female activists against violence and celebrity headliners such as Oprah, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek and Jennifer Hudson to name only a few.
Congolese activist, Christine Schuler Deschryver attended in support of a campaign titled “Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource, Power to the Women and Girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
She relayed the horrors that occur against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
She told of women who are kept as sexual slaves and raped by 20 to 30 men everyday; she said that young girls are not only tortured but undergo the abuse and humilation of being raped with burning objects such as wood, cigarettes or plastic – objects which usually cause severe organ damage in girls as young as 4 years old.
A group of female Iraqi activists against violence educated the audience on the recent sexist actions of the Iraqi government.
Recently, both pedophilia and polygamy were legalized in Iraq.
Also, rape statistics have sky rocketed since the American invasion into Iraq.
And people wonder why feminists claim the war is a women’s issue. It’s common sense.
In Iraq, when Iraqis lost control of their land to American soldiers, Iraqi men regained that sense of control by objectifying, humiliating and torturing women and girls, whose role in society was already precariously vulnerable
This hatred towards women will continue to worsen; young girls will continue be violated and women will continue to suffer until America leaves Iraq.
The V-Day event also sponsored sister events such as Superlove, also attended by the Katrina Warriors Network, which served as a reunion among African American women of the Hurricane Katrina diaspora.
Superlove was a two-day spectacle of slam poetry, theatrical performance, massage, storytelling and visual fine arts.
All of the events worked to raise awareness and call action to the urgent need of women around the globe and in America.
There is a prevalent hatred against women in the world that goes far beyond sexual objectification. It is something we, as feminists and concerned women, must confront with urgency and action.
Visit www.vday.org … or else.

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