Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day, was at the Free Library of Philadelphia on Saturday night to plug her new book, "In The Body of The World". Near the end of her book reading, she announced that One Billion Rising will be expanded for V-Day 2014.
V-Day, which was founded to draw attention to violence against women, was originally commemorated every Valentine's Day with performances of her play, "The Vagina Monologues". She created One Billion Rising, which mobilized one billion people to dance in the streets to protest violence against women, to mark the 15th anniversary in 2013.
"We are going to have 2 Billion Rising and a Call to Justice for 2014," she said. "We are asking women who have been attacked to file charges." If the statue of limitations has not expired, then we are asking to go to the court and file charges. If they have filed charges, we are asking them to go to find out what is happening. Can you imagine the lines of people that will be forming outside courthouses all over the world?
Call to Justice could produce a seismic change in the way that violence against women is looked at. There is strength in numbers. Women, who had previously kept silent about the attack, might be more willing to come forward in a group situation. With so few sexual assaults reported, the optics of lines of women waiting to press charges against their attackers might change public sentiment.
Ensler recently was diagnosed with stage 3 uterine cancer. She has surgery and chemotherapy. Nothing keeps this women down.
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