Today is Valentine’s Day, but that’s not what this post is about. V-Day is a movement fighting to end violence against women and girls all over the world. One of the things that I like to do on February 14th, when we are celebrating love, is to donate to this great cause and do my part to end the terrible crimes that are committed against women.
I’m all too familiar with a staggering statistic: that one in three women will be a victim of some form of violence in her lifetime. In other words, over one billion women currently on this planet will be assaulted in her lifetime. With those statistics in mind, activist Eve Ensler (best known for creation of the play The Vagina Monologues) established V-Day on Valentine’s Day in 1998. The purpose is simple: to unite and fight back against the epidemic in the world of violence against women.
I myself have been a victim of domestic violence, and sadly I know too many other women who have shared a similar experience. I also know women who have been raped and assaulted. It truly is everywhere, it happens far too often, and it needs to stop.
Today is the 16th anniversary of the launch of V-Day, and to celebrate I am writing this post and sharing it with people I love in hopes of helping to shatter the silence and erase the taboo that goes along with being a victim of battery, rape, incest, female genital mutilation, and sex slavery. These things are happening, and they will only end when we as a global society are aware of them and refuse to stay silent about how unacceptable they are. We must demand change.
Please celebrate V-Day with me by visiting vday.org and getting involved. You can donate, find an event to participate in, or even organize your own event. Let’s stand together and celebrate a different kind of V-Day this February 14th.