ART AND ACTIVISM UNITE TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIA.
V-DAY travels to India. March 8-20. Mission to celebrate South Asian women’s activism
WOMEN WARRIORS WALTZ INTO MUMBAI …V ARE FAMILY …A CELEBRATION OF
FEMINISM… “VAGINA MONOLOGUES” WAKE-UP CALL TO INDIAN WOMAN:
DIRECTOR …V IS FOR VICTORY!
(Newspaper headlines from various press accounts of the V-Day trip)
The headlines could only suggest the excitement, the joy, the creative and feminist fervor
surrounding V-Day’s recent trip to India, March 8-20 of 2004. We went to celebrate South Asian
women’s activism and we left India having established lasting ties with strong and dedicated
women and organizations. Led by V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman, the V-Day
contingent included V-Day founder and artistic director Eve Ensler, V-Day Executive Director
Jerri Lynn Fields, V-Counsel member and renowned actress Jane Fonda, and V-Day supporter
Academy award winner Marisa Tomei. Together with other V-Day members and friends, the
group performed, observed, experienced and celebrated across the country.
Planning and preparation for the India trip took more than 18 months, with daily communication
over details for weeks and weeks before the journey took place. We worked closely with
amazing, talented friends in India: Kamla, Kalyani, Abha, Mahabanoo, Kaizad and many others.
We were proud to work with two organizations that have helped shape the women’s movement in
India and Southeast Asia – Jagori and SANGAT. And a fabulous production team was
instrumental in breathing life into art at its best. The trip brought artists and activists together and
was wildly successful with eight sold-out shows, a conference attended by women from 16
different countries and media coverage from all over the world. A moving and memorable
moment was when Indian and Pakistani actresses joined hands for the first time, in a chilling
production of “Necessary Targets” along with Eve and Jane. The productions raised money for
two much-needed shelters in India.
Eve also debuted an excerpt of her new work “The Good Body,” a special piece called Jaadi,
about her conversations and experiences with Indian women. “In some ways, Indian women are
the strongest, fiercest and hold more leadership positions than women anywhere in the world,”
Ensler says. “Yet the number of cases of violence against women, bride beating and rape is
shocking.”
Summary of the trip:
Starting in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, there were gala performances of “The Vagina
Monologues” and “Necessary Targets,” Eve’s moving account of rape victims in Bosnia. On
International Woman’s Day, March 8, the India cast with their American counterparts thrilled a
standing-room only audience.
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Also in Mumbai, the V-Day delegation toured a SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and
Health Action) hospital/shelter in Dharavi, the largest slum in India. Dr Almidra Fernandes, a
former medical school dean, opened the shelter when as a doctor she witnessed the aftermath of
atrocities being committed against women and girls. The shelter operates in dangerous conditions
and under financial strain, but continues to stay open. SNEHA was a beneficiary of the V-Day
Mumbai event and is now a V-Day awardee.
We also met with representatives of Citibank in Mumbai who are supporting the work of several
groups working to end violence against women and girls. Citibank helped sponsor V-Day India
and has established a new program supporting underprivileged women through quarterly
contributions to two non-profit organizations.
The V-Day delegation then traveled by bus for 14 hours to Sidhbari in the state of Himachal
Pradesh, near Dharamsala (the Tibetan seat of government). There we were hosted by Jagori, and
we joined them as they laid the cornerstone of their future learning center for women and girls.
The center will be a haven for women’s networking and training; its purpose will be to help build
and support women’s leadership abilities and to address specific local needs through training,
research, workshops and collective reflection. During our stay at the Norbulingka Institute (its
mission is to preserve Tibetan culture) we visited a Buddhist nunnery and lit 1001 candles as a
blessing for the learning center.
Data from the 2001 Census and National Family Health Survey highlighted a decline in women’s
status in the more rural Indian states such as Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Violence
against women including sex trafficking, forced marriages and intensified vulnerability of girls is
becoming increasingly visible and concerning in these states. We were proud to be part of the
effort to support these women and help them recognize their own strength.
Finally, in Delhi, V-Day, along with Jagori and SANGAT, hosted a 3-day conference:
"Confronting Violence: Recounting Resistance, Envisioning Justice" The conference objective
was to analyze how feminists have faced Violence Against Women, and its relationship with
other phenomena like communalism, fundamentalisms, globalization, privatization etc. A
dynamic group of over 70 women from South Asian (including Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
China, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India) attended this powerful conference. (The full report of the
conference follows.) Eve performed a stunning one-woman show of “The Vagina Monologues”
for conference attendees and special guests. Also, we were profoundly moved by a performance
of “Barri,” written by Shaid Nadeem a Pakistani, about three women.
On our final evening in Delhi, V-Day co-sponsored an event organized by Jagori in
collaboration with ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) and a long-time VDay partner, Shabnam Hashmi. The event was called Women Artists for Justice,
Harmony and Peace, a concert in an open-air venue. It was a wonderful finale to a day
devoted to Peace. And indeed the voices of youth, the dancing of women, the power of
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poetry and Eve’s inspired words were a moving and joyful end to our India trip.
Accomplishments
V-Day’s trip to India accomplished so many things – from individual relationships between
women who will continue to support and nurture each other in their common work to end
violence against women, to more formalized connections to that same end. V-Day gave an award
to the new center in Himachal Pradesh and to Jagori to support their extraordinary
work, thus beginning a new partnership. The goal of V-Day’s global campaign is to establish
lasting and vibrant networks of women and organizations who share ideas and ideals, projects and
pitfalls all to contribute to our joint journey toward peace and safety for women and girls. Our trip
to India was a valuable step in that direction.
Feedback
In order to maintain these extraordinary and powerful networks, we are in touch with our friends,
new and old, to provide encouragement and obtain feedback. Recently, we heard this from India:
“You were asking about the impact of the conference on our work.
Well, it gave our work on violence a huge boost, the integrated
framework to understand violence in various spheres that we used
as the conceptual basis of the conference got validated and gave
us a springboard to consolidate and expand our ongoing work on
violence. We have since secured funding for the next three years
from a Danish donor to implement a whole series of activities,
including campaigns for public education, an interactive web
database for women's groups to monitor violence at the national
level, and pilot initiatives to develop community-managed models
of violence prevention and redressal such as women's courts in
some four or five locations. The collaboration with V-Day has
given the idea of a safe space a huge impetus - we are in the
process of articulating this concept in innovative ways (not just
the standard short-stay home or shelter). The impacts will unfold
and lower in the long term - and we are cheered and strengthened
by the confidence that you will be with us on the
journey as sisters and partners.
Throughout our visit we were lucky enough to experience some of the best theater, poetry, dance
and song India has to offer. We made friends and changed minds. Our circle of celebration for
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Vagina Warriors is wider and stronger for our India trip. We are grateful to our sisters there for
their untiring work.
Hibaaq Osman
V-Day Special Representative to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
www.vday.org  [email protected]
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