August 7, 2006
V-Day's mission is to end violence against women and girls worldwide. As such, we stand in opposition to war. We ask all political leaders to break the old paradigm of responding to violence with more violence. Instead we urge them to seek more sophisticated solutions that work to reveal the root causes of violence and transformation of violence rather than the escalation of it.
Following is a statement from our V-Day Karama partners on the ongoing violence in Lebanon and Gaza. “Karama,” the Arabic word for dignity, is a unique partnership with nine countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan.
-V-Day
STATEMENT FROM V-DAY KARAMA PARTNERS
As Arab organizations and representatives of human rights efforts, as citizens in countries living under political violence and different types of occupations, and as women working together to gain peace with dignity, we oppose all forms of violence.
Therefore, we condemn the horrific attacks and extreme military force being used against civilians, including women and children, in Lebanon and Gaza. We condemn the rush to inflict weapons and killing instead of attempting non-violent negotiations and prisoner exchange.
We condemn the United States government's material and political support of the attacks by Israel, the G8's one-sided response, and the deafening silence from some Arab Governments which ignores and condones the heinous scale of civilian casualties and infrastructural damage suffered by the families and communities of Lebanon and Gaza—more than 650 death in Lebanon and 106 in Gaza since 25 June 2006.
As the Israeli air strikes continue well-past 1,500 bombings, as the death and destruction mounts, we condemn the disproportionate harm being done to Lebanese and Palestinian civilians—taking lives, health, homes, livelihoods, economic development, the rule of law, infrastructure, and governance for years to come. In just the past few days, Beirut has seen the appearance of 500,000 displaced families and refugees.
We are women leaders from nine countries across the Arab Region, linked through V-Day Karama, addressing violence against women from every angle of society and politics. When political and military violence erupts, our work begins there.
This includes the conflicts elsewhere in Iraq and Sudan that have leveraged exponential political, military, and humanitarian crises that undermine community and human security for a generation. As the Karama partners we are coordinating common actions to cease these crises. "Karama" means dignity, a prerequisite for establishing peace and keeping an end to violence.
We are women in the region asking the international community and international human rights organizations to take a decisive stand against the attack without any neutrality. We believe that this is the time for these organizations to show their support of our issues and to act immediately to cease fire, take urgent action for solidarity with Lebanese and Palestinian people, and to provide humanitarian assistance for the displaced.
Starting immediately, Karama partners in and around Lebanon and Gaza have set forth the following actions:
- Hold a prominent event on the 2nd of September in Jordan by V-Day Karama, Al Gad News Paper and TV Satellite Channel, and Arab Women Organization of Jordan to support women's NGOs in Lebanon in their struggle for providing humanitarian assistance.
- Activities to support Lebanese women's organizations in the nine countries that Karama work in, as Lebanese people start facing shortages in food, medicine, and fuel.
- Distribute the statements and calls from Lebanese Civil Society Organizations to the international organizations and UN agencies.
- In Addition to activities will be held by Karama partners in each of the Arab Countries.
Organization/Country
1. V-Day Karama
Based in nine Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Sudan, and Tunisia) with headquarters in Egypt and a regional office in Jordan
2. Arab Women of Organization
Jordan
3. Women in Communication Society
Algeria
4. The Human Forum for Women
Jordan
5. Women Will of Iraq
Iraq
6. ACT
Egypt
7. Egyptian Family Foundation
Egypt
8. The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
Egypt
9. Syrian Committee for Women Causes
Syria
10. Research Centre for Refugees Studies
Jordan
11. Kafa (Enough) Violence and Exploitation
Lebanon
12. Hey Institute
Egypt
13. The Lebanese Democratic Forum for Women
Lebanon
14. Najdeh, Palestinian Women Forum
Lebanon
15. Al Nadeem Centre
Egypt
16. Jordanian Society for Professional Ethics
Jordan
17. Women Organization to Combat Illiteracy
Jordan
18. The Jordanian Society for Development
Jordan
19. Izdihar Project for Family Development
Jordan
20. Al Asera Al Bedaa' Society
Jordan
21. Al Nakheel Society
Morocco
22. The Alliance for Syrian Women
Syria
23. UMI Society
Egypt
24. Women and Society Organization
Egypt
25. Union de l'Action Féminine ,
Morocco
26. The Society for Women In Crises
Algeria
27. The Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights
Egypt
28. The Center for Studies & Programs of Alternative Development
Egypt
29. Al Hassna Magazine
Lebanon
30. Jordan Society for Profession and Work Ethics
Jordan
31. Women Movement for Peace Society
Algeria
32. EACPE
Egypt
33. Mosawa Network,
Jordan
34. The Egyptian Forum for Women and Development,
Egypt
35. Salmmah Centre for Gender and Development
Sudan
36. Siha Horn of Africa Network,
Sudan
37. Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling,
Palestine
38. Women against Violence,
Palestine
39. Eve Centre for Counseling,
Morocco
40. Tunisian Women Society for Research and Development
Tunisia
41. The Arab Society for Sociologists
Tunisia
42. The Arab Alliance for women
Egypt
43. Center for Egyptian Women Issues
Egypt
44. Gender Centre for Research And Training
Sudan
45. Women Society for Solidarity with Urban Families
Algeria
46. The National Union for Algerian Women
Algeria
47. The National Committee for Women and Sport
Algeria
48. National Society for Women's Development
Algeria
49. The National Organizations for Families Victims of Terrorism
Algeria
50. The National Society for Urban Women and development
Algeria
51. Parliamentarian Women's Forum
Algeria
52. Society for Enhancement of Women's Activities
Algeria
53. Iqra' (read) Society)
Algeria
54. National Society for Family Development
Algeria
55. The Moroccan Society for Advocating Women's Rights/ Fama Centre
Morocco
56. The Moroccan Society for Combating Violence against Women
Morocco
About V-Day Karama
In 2005, V-Day continued its initiatives in Africa, Asia and the Middle East by launching the Karama Program, envisioned by V-Day Special Representative and Karama Chair, Hibaaq Osman, in Cairo, Egypt. “Karama,” the Arabic word for dignity, is a unique partnership with nine countries of the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Sudan. Through women's organizations and inter-regional agencies such as the Arab League and the African Union, Karama brings together women, men, governments, activists and artists to examine the impact of violence on women's health, education, and economics, and to create and encourage campaigns at the national, regional, and international levels to end violence against women, tailored to the cultural realities of the target country. Headquartered in Cairo, Karama works closely with organizations working in different sectors, and on different issues in each society, such as education, health, religion, art, economics, and policy.
23 September 2006
An Open Letter to President Bush, Read by Eve Ensler at V-Day Paris
March 31, 2003
Paris, France
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing as a woman, as a citizen of the world, as an American who has just visited 16 countries, including Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan, working with V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.
I believe your war indicates a desire to dominate, rather transform, heal, improve, or build relationships.
I do not think you understand that the United States is one country and one culture and not the only country and culture. That the spirit of domination threatens the world’s diversity and difference—the very forces that are most magical and essential to the human experience.
I do not think that you have sat with the panicked Afghan women in Kabul who believe the war will shift attention away from their country and thus bring an end to their short-lived security. I do not think you have seen the desperate face of the woman in a Ramallah refugee camp, a widow who just lost her two sons. I do not think you have been privy to the generosity of the Muslim women in the ghettos of Cairo, in the kitchens of Bosnia, in the high offices of Jordan. I do not think you have allowed these people to enter you.
I think you are in the process of polluting all that is great about America, destroying the dream, erasing the years of struggle for democracy, human rights, self-determination, tolerance and peace.
Here is a response to some of your terribly dangerous misconceptions, based on what I have seen in my travels:
1. The Muslim world is not populated by terrorists. Most people long for peace, long for justice, long for cooperation.
2. Muslims do not hate Americans. They despise the current American government as they feel it has no respect for their values, culture, religion, or ways of being. They are suspicious of a government that bombs places like Afghanistan with the promise of reconstruction and then abandons the job before the majority of people have heat, water or electricity. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
3. The people of the Muslim world want to love Americans, as the experiment of democracy in the United States has been a great inspiration to them.
4. The loss of American lives is not worse then the loss of Iraqi lives or Israeli lives or Palestinian lives or Bosnian lives or Afghani lives. Three thousand deaths--whether it be in the World Trade Center or the streets of Baghdad or in Mazur Sharif—will always be equal to the destruction of three thousand dreams, stories, and families.
5. You cannot help people through force or violence. You help people by serving them, by asking questions, through humility, by being engaged in a process of discovery, admitting that you do not have answers and seeking answers together. You help people by providing safety and resources so they can do their best thinking. You help people by trusting they have the capacity to help themselves.
Mr. President, there is a new paradigm. I have seen it manifest itself everywhere, from Manhattan to Manila, Sarajevo to Johannesburg. Women and men who have suffered enormous violence are not buying AK-47s or machetes or weapons of mass destruction. They are not plotting retaliation or revenge. I have seen how in the Rift Valley of Africa the women who were mutilated are now opening safe houses to protect young girls from Female Genital Mutilation. In Houston, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, and Kauai, women are telling their stories of rape and domestic battery, risking shame and embarrassment so other women will be free. In Juarez, Mexico, women activists are risking assassination as they speak out against the murder and disappearances of hundreds of poor women. In the refugee camps of Peshawar, Afghan women who lost every right under the Taliban are bringing up girls and boys to be equal. In the community centers of Mostar, women who were raped during the Bosnian war are working with soldiers to heal their trauma. In Islamabad, women are risking Fatwa to save other women from acid burnings and honor killings. In the streets of Paris, women are risking everything to hide women from their pimps and save their daughters from sex slavery. These are the new warriors--those who transform the violence into healing. Those who are creative and imaginative and careful in their response.
Women and men all over the world know that the time of violence is over. Your war will not divide or distract us or undo this new paradigm. Yes, the story of violence is in our bodies. But so is the new determination and strength. We grieve the centuries of rape, bombings, brutality, and cruelty. We refuse to act in kind. Instead we hold and transform this violence, and we do everything in our power to prevent this from happening again to anyone, anywhere.
We urge you to stop the bombing, to stop the dominating.
End the old paradigm. Join us here on the other side.
Sincerely,
Eve Ensler
Activist/Playwright/Founder, V-Day
Paris, France
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing as a woman, as a citizen of the world, as an American who has just visited 16 countries, including Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan, working with V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.
I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.I am writing because I believe your war on Iraq reveals your profound lack of understanding of the world.
I believe your war indicates a desire to dominate, rather transform, heal, improve, or build relationships.
I do not think you understand that the United States is one country and one culture and not the only country and culture. That the spirit of domination threatens the world’s diversity and difference—the very forces that are most magical and essential to the human experience.
I do not think that you have sat with the panicked Afghan women in Kabul who believe the war will shift attention away from their country and thus bring an end to their short-lived security. I do not think you have seen the desperate face of the woman in a Ramallah refugee camp, a widow who just lost her two sons. I do not think you have been privy to the generosity of the Muslim women in the ghettos of Cairo, in the kitchens of Bosnia, in the high offices of Jordan. I do not think you have allowed these people to enter you.
I think you are in the process of polluting all that is great about America, destroying the dream, erasing the years of struggle for democracy, human rights, self-determination, tolerance and peace.
Here is a response to some of your terribly dangerous misconceptions, based on what I have seen in my travels:
1. The Muslim world is not populated by terrorists. Most people long for peace, long for justice, long for cooperation.
2. Muslims do not hate Americans. They despise the current American government as they feel it has no respect for their values, culture, religion, or ways of being. They are suspicious of a government that bombs places like Afghanistan with the promise of reconstruction and then abandons the job before the majority of people have heat, water or electricity. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
3. The people of the Muslim world want to love Americans, as the experiment of democracy in the United States has been a great inspiration to them.
4. The loss of American lives is not worse then the loss of Iraqi lives or Israeli lives or Palestinian lives or Bosnian lives or Afghani lives. Three thousand deaths--whether it be in the World Trade Center or the streets of Baghdad or in Mazur Sharif—will always be equal to the destruction of three thousand dreams, stories, and families.
5. You cannot help people through force or violence. You help people by serving them, by asking questions, through humility, by being engaged in a process of discovery, admitting that you do not have answers and seeking answers together. You help people by providing safety and resources so they can do their best thinking. You help people by trusting they have the capacity to help themselves.
Mr. President, there is a new paradigm. I have seen it manifest itself everywhere, from Manhattan to Manila, Sarajevo to Johannesburg. Women and men who have suffered enormous violence are not buying AK-47s or machetes or weapons of mass destruction. They are not plotting retaliation or revenge. I have seen how in the Rift Valley of Africa the women who were mutilated are now opening safe houses to protect young girls from Female Genital Mutilation. In Houston, Denver, New York, Los Angeles, and Kauai, women are telling their stories of rape and domestic battery, risking shame and embarrassment so other women will be free. In Juarez, Mexico, women activists are risking assassination as they speak out against the murder and disappearances of hundreds of poor women. In the refugee camps of Peshawar, Afghan women who lost every right under the Taliban are bringing up girls and boys to be equal. In the community centers of Mostar, women who were raped during the Bosnian war are working with soldiers to heal their trauma. In Islamabad, women are risking Fatwa to save other women from acid burnings and honor killings. In the streets of Paris, women are risking everything to hide women from their pimps and save their daughters from sex slavery. These are the new warriors--those who transform the violence into healing. Those who are creative and imaginative and careful in their response.
Women and men all over the world know that the time of violence is over. Your war will not divide or distract us or undo this new paradigm. Yes, the story of violence is in our bodies. But so is the new determination and strength. We grieve the centuries of rape, bombings, brutality, and cruelty. We refuse to act in kind. Instead we hold and transform this violence, and we do everything in our power to prevent this from happening again to anyone, anywhere.
We urge you to stop the bombing, to stop the dominating.
End the old paradigm. Join us here on the other side.
Sincerely,
Eve Ensler
Activist/Playwright/Founder, V-Day
This Is Most Fragile Time for Afghanistan
After her most recent trip to Afghanistan, playwright and women's activist Eve Ensler pleads for the U.S. to keep its promises to stabilize the country, which she likens to a patient at a dangerous point of recovery.
I have just returned from Afghanistan. This was my third trip. I write now because the situation is urgent. Afghanistan today reminds me of a person who has been seriously ill. She is just beginning to recover, the fever has broken and there are those early moments where she suddenly feels alive. We know this is the most dangerous time. The energy is part of the fever itself, a kind of delirium, but the patient thrilled with the possibility of living, if not protected can go wild with activity. This exertion can have deadly consequences. In the case of Afghanistan this somewhat frenzied, disorganized activity comes not just from a momentary recovery-a ceasing of bombs falling but from a deep panic that the recovery is short lived and not guaranteed and so everything must be done now or it will disappear forever.
I would say this is the most fragile time I have experienced in Afghanistan.
Under the Taliban it was a tortured, ruinously oppressed country, but women in particular knew what to prepare for, they knew how to defend themselves against the madness, they could identify their enemies, they were braced for violence. They had learned how to maneuver in clandestine ways. Now for example, the situation is less clear, there is the pretense of liberation, although the ongoing threat of violence can be felt.
For example, at our recent women's leadership training conference women, who were visionary about the future, felt compelled to still wear burqas. On March 8, there were huge events celebrating International Women's day. One event at the Afghan Women's Union unveiled a statue symbolizing women's freedom and power. Hundreds attended. A day later the statue was stolen. The Women's Minister who in theory is the symbolic representative of Afghan women cannot move anywhere in the country without bodyguards. Although women are now working to create new businesses, build schools, open hospitals, the majority of the people in Afghanistan still live without heat, electricity or running water.
Having spent time in recent months with Afghan women in Kabul, as well as women and men in Amman, Cairo, Ramallah, Islamabad, and Peshawar, I can say that the Muslim world is highly suspect of the intentions of the U.S. government. They are watching Afghanistan. It is the test case. If the U.S. does not deliver security, substantial aid and reconstruction, we may never recover the trust of the Muslim world. If we turn our backs on Afghanistan, if we do not fulfill our promises, there is a good chance that the patient will never recover nor will she fulfill her dream of a free, safe and prospering Afghanistan. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
- Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler, playwright of "The Vagina Monologues," is the Founder and Artistic Director of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
This commentary appeared on Women¹s eNews (http://womensenews.org) on April 30, 2003
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/press/media/0305021
I have just returned from Afghanistan. This was my third trip. I write now because the situation is urgent. Afghanistan today reminds me of a person who has been seriously ill. She is just beginning to recover, the fever has broken and there are those early moments where she suddenly feels alive. We know this is the most dangerous time. The energy is part of the fever itself, a kind of delirium, but the patient thrilled with the possibility of living, if not protected can go wild with activity. This exertion can have deadly consequences. In the case of Afghanistan this somewhat frenzied, disorganized activity comes not just from a momentary recovery-a ceasing of bombs falling but from a deep panic that the recovery is short lived and not guaranteed and so everything must be done now or it will disappear forever.
I would say this is the most fragile time I have experienced in Afghanistan.
Under the Taliban it was a tortured, ruinously oppressed country, but women in particular knew what to prepare for, they knew how to defend themselves against the madness, they could identify their enemies, they were braced for violence. They had learned how to maneuver in clandestine ways. Now for example, the situation is less clear, there is the pretense of liberation, although the ongoing threat of violence can be felt.
For example, at our recent women's leadership training conference women, who were visionary about the future, felt compelled to still wear burqas. On March 8, there were huge events celebrating International Women's day. One event at the Afghan Women's Union unveiled a statue symbolizing women's freedom and power. Hundreds attended. A day later the statue was stolen. The Women's Minister who in theory is the symbolic representative of Afghan women cannot move anywhere in the country without bodyguards. Although women are now working to create new businesses, build schools, open hospitals, the majority of the people in Afghanistan still live without heat, electricity or running water.
Having spent time in recent months with Afghan women in Kabul, as well as women and men in Amman, Cairo, Ramallah, Islamabad, and Peshawar, I can say that the Muslim world is highly suspect of the intentions of the U.S. government. They are watching Afghanistan. It is the test case. If the U.S. does not deliver security, substantial aid and reconstruction, we may never recover the trust of the Muslim world. If we turn our backs on Afghanistan, if we do not fulfill our promises, there is a good chance that the patient will never recover nor will she fulfill her dream of a free, safe and prospering Afghanistan. Terrorists are born in the cracks of broken promises.
- Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler, playwright of "The Vagina Monologues," is the Founder and Artistic Director of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.
This commentary appeared on Women¹s eNews (http://womensenews.org) on April 30, 2003
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/press/media/0305021
VM in the ME
I am writing from Cairo. Today we were part a truly momentous event, the opening of Bayat Hawa, the first shelter in Egypt for battered women. This event not only opened the first safe place for women here, but it broke open the silence and invisibility of women’s pain. It signaled that change is possible. I spent the afternoon in the new house, listening to a group of women who have suffered and continue to suffer enormous violence. Most of them had been beaten by their husbands, their brothers, their fathers. Traditionally, women do not report this to anyone as “privacy” of the family is valued above all else, and there are no laws that would protect them from such assault. If women complain, they risk their husbands, marrying another wife and taking their children away from them. Saffa, a fifteen-year old girl who was beaten by her father for years, was married at 14 and then seriously beaten by her husband. She has now moved back to her father’s house where the abuse continues. As Saffa told her story the sadness in her eyes was matched by the depth of her desire for a new life, for education, for a way out.
[...]
The policies of the United States are in many cases, escalating this war. If we look at Iraq as one example, we see that under the terrible tyranny of Saddam Hussein, women lived difficult lives, but they were actually one of the most liberated and free in the Middle East. Since the U.S. invasion and occupation, the situation has becoming increasingly desperate. Women now face ongoing abductions, honor killings, and fundamentalist oppression. They are being raped and acid burned. They do not feel safe leaving their homes or keeping jobs. Shariah law – which could seriously limit their rights - is likely to become part of the new constitution.
Where people feel threatened and undermined by outside invasion, fundamentalism grows. Fundamentalism survives on the suppression and silencing of women. As the United States sustains policies of empire building and hegemony, in the supposed name of “security”, women throughout the world, become increasingly imperiled and insecure.
As I have traveled these last eight years, I have had the honor to meet women and men across this planet who have witnessed or suffered enormous violence, and rather than getting an AK47 or a machete, they feel this violence, grieve this violence and allow it to transform within their beings. Then they devote their lives to making sure it never happens to another woman or girl. We have come to call these people ‘Vagina Warriors.’ There are thousands, perhaps millions of these warriors in the world. They are fierce, obsessed, can’t be stopped, driven. They are citizens of the world. They cherish humanity over nationhood. They are done being victims. They know no one is coming to rescue them. They are community makers. They bring everyone in.
They are women and men who constantly sacrifice their own personal security and by doing so create real safety and freedom for the rest. They realize that the end goal is becoming vulnerable, realizing the place of our connection to one another rather than becoming secure, in control and alone.
- Eve Ensler
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/vmoment/wfntest
[...]
The policies of the United States are in many cases, escalating this war. If we look at Iraq as one example, we see that under the terrible tyranny of Saddam Hussein, women lived difficult lives, but they were actually one of the most liberated and free in the Middle East. Since the U.S. invasion and occupation, the situation has becoming increasingly desperate. Women now face ongoing abductions, honor killings, and fundamentalist oppression. They are being raped and acid burned. They do not feel safe leaving their homes or keeping jobs. Shariah law – which could seriously limit their rights - is likely to become part of the new constitution.
Where people feel threatened and undermined by outside invasion, fundamentalism grows. Fundamentalism survives on the suppression and silencing of women. As the United States sustains policies of empire building and hegemony, in the supposed name of “security”, women throughout the world, become increasingly imperiled and insecure.
As I have traveled these last eight years, I have had the honor to meet women and men across this planet who have witnessed or suffered enormous violence, and rather than getting an AK47 or a machete, they feel this violence, grieve this violence and allow it to transform within their beings. Then they devote their lives to making sure it never happens to another woman or girl. We have come to call these people ‘Vagina Warriors.’ There are thousands, perhaps millions of these warriors in the world. They are fierce, obsessed, can’t be stopped, driven. They are citizens of the world. They cherish humanity over nationhood. They are done being victims. They know no one is coming to rescue them. They are community makers. They bring everyone in.
They are women and men who constantly sacrifice their own personal security and by doing so create real safety and freedom for the rest. They realize that the end goal is becoming vulnerable, realizing the place of our connection to one another rather than becoming secure, in control and alone.
- Eve Ensler
http://www.vday.org/contents/vday/vmoment/wfntest
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