One Billion Rising
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| Motto | Strike, Dance, Rise! |
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Founder
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Eve Ensler |
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Director
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Monique Wilson |
| Website | onebillionrising.org |
One Billion Rising is a global movement, founded by Eve Ensler, to end rape and sexual violence against women. It was started in 2012 as part of the V-Day movement. The "billion" refers to the UN statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, or about one billion. The campaign expands each year. In 2016, the theme of the campaign is Rise for Revolution. “This year’s campaign will escalate the collective actions of activists worldwide, and amplify their call for systematic changes towards ending violence against women and children once and for all,” said OBR global director, Monique Wilson.
The campaign was initiated by playwright and activist Eve Ensler (known for her play The Vagina Monologues), and her organization V-Day. The campaign was in part inspired by the Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" and pregnancy comments controversy. Ensler, shocked at Akin's statement, wrote an open letter in response.
In 2012, the One Billion Rising campaign culminated in the biggest mass global action to end violence against women ever with tens of thousands of events held.
On September 20, 2012, people from 160 countries had signed up to take part in the campaign.
Around 5,000 organizations have joined the campaign, which has also been aided or endorsed by religious ministers, movement builders, actors Rosario Dawson, Robert Redford, and Stella Creasy, British Labour Co-operative politician.
In a video message dedicated to Jyoti Singh, the Indian student who died in December after she was gang-raped by six men on a Delhi bus, Anoushka Shankar disclosed she had been abused by a trusted friend of her parents over several years when she was a child. In her message she said she did not believe she will ever recover from the abuse she had suffered: "...as a woman I find I'm frequently living in fear, afraid to walk along at night, afraid to answer a man who asks for the time, afraid I'm going to be judged or treated in ways based on the way I might choose to dress or the make up I might choose to wear, and you know, enough is enough. I'm rising for women like Jyoti, for women like her, with the amazing women of my country I'm rising for the child in me who I don't think will ever fully recover from what happened to her."
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Wikipedia