14 March each year is Vagina Day. It is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler's award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works.
In 2009, more that 4000 V-day events took place in the U.S and around the world. To date, the V-day movement has raised over $70 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.
I had the privilege to attend one of these productions last night. It was eye opening! You always know about these things and that they are happening, but you're never aware that they are happening around you in really close proximity. Korean women were tortured and forced into sex slaves during the WW2 where ships of soldiers would arrive daily and each women would have to 'service' about 50 men each day. They were fed rice and miso soup and were not allowed to wash, move around, use condoms, refuse or say 'leave me alone' or 'I don't want to'. To this day these women are looking for apologies from the Japanese Government and each Wednesday they go to the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in hope for an apology.
We can help women like these by getting involved! This year the focus was on the women of the DRC. Women all around Africa are still experiencing horrific acts like circumcision and the complete removal of their vagina's with glass shards, knives and rusted blades and live a very short, painful and emotionally 'fucked' live.
Congo is said to be the most dangerous place on earth for women and girls. Since 1996, sexual violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been used to torture and humiliate women and girls and destroy families. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped since the conflict began. In addition to the severe psychological impact, sexual violence leaves many survivors with genital lesions, traumatic fistulae, severed and broken limbs, unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Survivors are regularly ostracized and abandoned by their families and communities.
One woman's story:
ZAMUDA
54 years old.5 militias Tutsi's and Mai Mai. I was naked in front of my kids. Her husband and children were killed in front of her. They beat her legs. She will never forget the feeling of the rifle inside her vagina. She has no kids to take care of her when she is old.
Look at a few of these facts:
47.9% of female sex workers in South Korea do not use condoms.
In Seoul, Korea, 22% of adult women said they had been the victims of rape and attempted rape.
In 2007, there were 1081 reported cases of sexual abuse against children in South Korea.
In Seoul, there are 42 348 male toilets compared to only 34 649 toilets for females.
90% of the women working as prostitutes in Korea are trafficked from Southeast Asian countries.
In a survey in South Africa, 25% of the young men admitted to having had sex with a woman without her consent, before he was 18 years of age (Human Rights Watch).
In the late nineties in South Africa, 40% of reported rapes and attempted rapes targeted girls younger than 17 years of age. (Human Rights Watch)
Philippines: An estimated 400,000 women in prostitution, a quarter of whom are children. 150,000 Filipina women have been trafficked into prostitution in Japan.
There are many more shocking statistics.
If you want to get involved, check out the website:
http://www.vday.org/about
Go to this website and read about what is happening around the world and how we can get involved to help and prevent violence against women and girls.
This shocked me to my core and I will do and try anything to help these ladies.
You can watch some of the Vagina Monologues posted on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vagina+monologues&search_type=
Please, get involved!!
