As a Canadian woman, living in a medium-sized city I could easily ignore
the recent news coverage on the One Billion Rising movement. They say that 1 in 3 women in the world will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. There is a global movement to end violence
against women which gained a lot of press this past week on Valentine’s Day as
groups of women and men all over the world gathered in public places to
peacefully and joyfully protest this violence through dance and song. I
could easily brush off this movement thinking that the women rising up together
are fighting a problem in India or Somalia or Afghanistan or some other
place very far away. Sure, there is violence against women in my
country, in my city. As a school administrator in a school
situated across the street from a women's shelter, I know that this violence
exists. We often take in students temporarily who are staying in the women's shelter with their mothers. But again, this violence doesn't
directly touch me so why would I rise up to fight violence against women?
Here is one reason why...
I like to run. I am currently training for half-marathons in March
and May. I run with a group of ladies who have become good friends.
As we run we chat about our lives and I have come to regard these runs as
my time just for me, a break from work and family commitments where I
can bond with my girlfriends, get fit and de-stress while working toward
various running goals.
Yesterday, as I was running a 20 km training run with two of my friends
along the trails in the river valley of our city, at about kilometre 15, we
were spread out slightly with the faster lady of our group of three about 50
meters ahead of us. Suddenly, she turned
around and was running back to us and when we joined up again, she said that up
ahead on the trail was a man walking alone and she didn't feel comfortable
passing him alone. Several seconds later, running all together, we passed
this man and could see he was just a man out for a walk on a Sunday afternoon.
He could have been one of our brothers or husbands. Up close he was
not threatening at all, but this is what I was thinking as the three of us ran
past him together. I know that if I had been running alone, I would not
have felt so brave. I have run alone before and I have to admit that I
never feel completely safe when doing so. I realized that I do not just
run with friends for camaraderie. I run with my friends to feel
safe. Here I am, living in a city and country with
solid, uncorrupted police and justice systems (unlike many of the
countries I have read about such as India and Mexico for example) and yet I am
afraid of any situation where I may be isolated with a man I do not know.
If that man walking on the trail ahead of my friend had been a woman
instead, I know that she would not have felt the need to turn around.
One Billion Rising is not just about the third world. It is not
just about war-torn countries and buses in India. It is about women feeling safe wherever they are. It is
for women working a late shift at the hospital who need a security escort to
their cars. It is for women alone at a bus stop. It is for women
who feel they need to lock their car door when driving. It is for women
walking or running alone. And it is also about the bad image that all men
get because of violence against women by the few. Obviously not all men are violent
and not all men are to be feared.
This is why I do need to rise up to fight violence against women. This
is why we ALL need to rise up, women and men together, to say that violence
against women is not acceptable and we will not continue to ignore it or think
that it is someone else's problem.
There is an active hashtag on Twitter: #1BillionRising and many regions, cities and countries are creating their own Twitter accounts to let us know when and where Rising events are taking place.
A very good place to start is by following One Billion Rising founder, Eve Ensler.
Here is a short film about One Billion Rising by EveEnsler and Tony Stroebel
