It's Valentine's Day. The day lovers give flowers, chocolates and tender words. The day couples go out on a special date or simply say all they forget to say on all the other days. The day women expect to be pampered by their men.
However, for many women this is just another day of violence. Another day of beating, rape, genital mutilation, discrimination, slavery, and humiliation. And I'm not talking about poor women of underdeveloped countries, where tradition means more than humanity. I'm talking about women of every country, every culture, and every social condition.
Statistics show that 1 out of 3 women will be raped or beaten during her lifetime. Let it put it this way:
a) if you're a man and you have a mother, a wife and a daughter, it means that one of them will be raped or beaten
b) if you're a woman and you have a mother and a sister, it means one of you will be raped or beaten.
That's one billion women. Hard to imagine, uh? That's why ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE campaign was born. A call to women, men, and youth around the world to gather safely on 14 February 2014 outside places where they are entitled to justice – court houses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not.
The campaign is a recognition that we cannot end violence against women without looking at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Impunity lives at the heart of these interlocking forces.
Precisely today, Valentine's Day, we should all join a nearby event and claim for justice. But if you can't find an event near you there are other ways you can help the movement. By taking legal action and making the truth visible. By calling for an end of all forms of inequality, discrimination and patriarchy. By shaming perpetrators. By sharing your story or your vision of justice on all social networks. Above all, by treating all women, regardless of her age, religion or social condition, with dignity and respect.
We can't remain silent. We can't stop fighting. Rise. Release. Dance!
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