A REVOLUTION OF HOPE
On International Women’s Day, the call will be for an end to rape and sexual violence against women.
It will not be a revolution with guns or bombs, or even picket signs and shouting matches; “just dancing,” says international theater actress and One Billion Rising (OBR) director Monique Wilson.
Now on its fourth year, OBR, the brainchild of Tony Award winning playwright Eve Ensler, has significantly helped in increasing awareness of the people on the issue of violence against women and girls.
When the campaign started in 2012, its organizers chose the name One Billion Rising based on the United Nations’ estimate that one in three women all over the world will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
In the Philippines, two out of three Filipino women will experience various forms of abuse in their lifetime, Wilson says.
Ensler – author of the feminist hit play “The Vagina Monologues” – arrived in the Philippines last week to join Filipinos in rising against violence against women and children.
In the Philippines, the OBR is coorganized by the women’s group Gabriela.
“For some time, the issue of violence against women and girls was a side issue,” Wilson says. “You know that violence against women is happening but you don’t have the sense of urgency.”
“When OBR started, it landed on the front page of newspapers around the world, in the news, lifestyle news, and entertainment news – in all spaces of the media that we didn’t realize that we are talking about all forms of violence against women and girls very deeply,” she says.
The former “Miss Saigon” actress notes that one of the successes of the OBR is that it became a platform for abused women to speak out.
“Grassroots communities were engaged in the OBR, and were encouraged to speak of their condition, to fight and call for a stop to exploitation and abuse,” she says.
“It is no longer just celebrities talking in behalf of other women, but also activists who are really on the ground who are telling their stories, who are really calling for their perpetrators to justice, who are also coming together in unity, and that happened all around the world,” Wilson says.
Women and men from other sectors also joined risings, such as students, environmentalists and progressive groups, she says.
Why dance?
“Dance is a form of protest or resistance. It frees a female survivor’s body from oppression and pain. There’s an empowerment that happens to her when she dances with the community,” Wilson says of the concept.
“There’s fierceness and strength when you dance all together because it’s almost like a show of force. When you dance, you
get energy from the person beside you,” she says.
Wilson recalls how the OBR campaign changed the lives of many abused women and children all over the world.
She cites the case of a girl who was gang raped by some policemen in Manila sometime back.
“Two years ago, I met a rape victim. She was so fearful to talk and expose herself. Her mother was beside her crying,” Wilson says.
“But when I met her during our filming of the OBR at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila, the girl danced as if to sweep away all her nightmares,” she says.
“She danced fiercely and I said what happened to you, just last week you were crying. She told me that the support of everyone gave her strength. She said that when she dances, no one can take away power from her,” Wilson says.
According to Wilson, the OBR campaign has also helped obtain justice for Erwiana, a former Indonesian domestic worker in Hong Kong who was abused by her employer.
In 2014, OBR HK called for justice for Erwiana. She sued her employer and won. Last year, more than 200 countries participated in the event as a show of solidarity.
Listen. Act. Rise.
This year’s theme of OBR is “Listen. Act. Rise.” “OBR will put the most marginalized groups at the forefront,” Wilson says.
“We couldn’t anymore demand an end to violence unless we also call for a system change. That is the very system in many countries around the world that are actually keeping our women violated and oppressed,” Wilson points out.
One of the major highlights of the campaign was the dance revolution held last Valentine’s Day at the Quirino Grandstand, where an estimated 5,000 people participated.
OBR is part of the V-Day, the global movement also founded by Ensler and a group of women in New York City on Feb. 14, 1998 that demanded an end to violence against women and girls.
Last Feb. 8, students of St. Scholastica’s College in Manila danced in Tondo, Manila in support of the campaign.
Risings were also held in Bangladesh for the workers of the Rana Plaza; in Hong Kong with domestic and migrant workers; in Mexico, where human trafficking is massive; in London, where there is an ongoing issue on refugees.
Wilson says survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban and the lumad evacuees in Davao also joined OBR 2016.
“Part of our initiatives is rising for climate justice and Mother Earth because it’s really tied together. What’s happening to the environment, happens to women,” she points out.
Wilson explains that violence against women does not only involve sexual harassment. She says poverty also leads to economic violence, which is one of the worse forms of abuse.
“Because if there is no opportunity, more women are likely to be abused, they would likely become victims of prostitution, trafficking and forced labor,” she says.
Wilson says perpetrators try to take away hope from women and girls.
“If you’re hopeless, then dancing gives you hope. And the biggest weapon anyone can have is hope,” she concludes.