Thank you for taking the first step in helping to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day relies on the media to help get the word out about the global reach and long-lasting effects of violence. With your assistance, we hope your audience is compelled to take action to stop the violence, rape, domestic battery, incest, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery—that many women and girls face every day around the world.
Our goal is to provide media with everything you need to present the most interesting and meaningful story possible. If you require additional information or interviews, please contact Susan Celia Swan at .
In addition, you can find all of our press releases (including the most recent) posted at our site in the Press Release section.
Thank you again for joining V-Day in our fight to end violence against women and girls.
Susan Celia Swan Jerri Lynn Fields
Media & Communications Executive Director
917-865-6603 914-835-6740
CONTENTS OF THIS KIT
Page 1: Welcome To V-Day’s 2004 Press KitPage 2: V-Day 2004 theme: “Celebrating Vagina Warriors”: Essay by Eve Ensler
Page 3: V-Day 2004 Overview Press Release
Page 7: About V-Day and Mission Statement
Page 8: Star Support: The Vulva Choir
Page 11: Quote Sheet
Page 12: Biography of V-Day Founder and Artistic Director/Playwright Eve Ensler
Page 13: Take Action to Stop Violence
Page 14: V-Day College and Worldwide Campaigns
Page 15: Selected Media Coverage
Page 38: Selected Press Releases
V-Day 2004
Vagina Warriors: An Emerging Paradigm, An Emerging Species
I have sat with women in crowded factories in Juarez, in crumbling shelters in the back streets of Cairo, in makeshift centers for teenage girls and women in Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Pine Ridge and Watts, in mansions in Hollywood, in burnt-out backyards in Kosova and Kabul, in a moving van after midnight with sex trafficked girls in Paris. Sometimes these meetings went on for hours; in the case of the 17-year-old Bulgarian sex slave, we had 35 minutes before her pimp came looking for her. I have heard the staggering stories of violence - war rapes, gang rapes, date rapes, licensed rapes, family rapes. I have seen first-hand the scars of brutality - black eyes, cigarette-hole burns in arms and legs, a melted face, bruises, slices and broken bones. I have witnessed women living without what is fundamental - sky, sun, a roof, food, parents, a clitoris, freedom. I have been there when skulls washed up on riverbanks and naked mutilated female bodies were discovered in ditches. I have seen the worst. The worst lives in my body. But in each and every case I was escorted, transformed, and transported by a guide, a visionary, an activist, an outrageous fighter and dreamer. I have come to know these women (and sometimes men) as Vagina Warriors.
It was Zoya who first took me to the muddy Afghan camps in Pakistan; Rada who translated the stories of women refugees as we traveled through war-torn Bosnia; Megan who led pro-vagina cheers on a freezing cold campus in Michigan; Igo who made jokes about land mines as we sped in her jeep through the post-war roads outside Pristina, Kosova; Esther who took me to the graves marked with pink crosses in Juarez, Mexico; Agnes who walked me up the path with dancing and singing Masai girls dressed in red, celebrating the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls fleeing female genital mutilation (FGM).
At first I thought this was just a rare group of individuals, specific women who had been violated or witnessed so much suffering they had no choice but to act. But after five years of traveling, forty countries later a pattern has emerged, an evolving species. Vagina Warriors are everywhere. In a time of escalating and explosive violence on the planet, these Warriors are fostering a new paradigm.
Although Vagina Warriors are highly original, they possess some general defining characteristics:
They are fierce, obsessed, can’t be stopped, driven.
They are no longer beholden to social customs or inhibited by taboos. They are not afraid to be alone, not afraid to be ridiculed or attacked. They are often willing to face anything for the safety and freedom of others.
They love to dance.
They are directed by vision, not ruled by ideology.
They are citizens of the world. They cherish humanity over nationhood.
They have a wicked sense of humor. A Palestinian activist told jokes to an Israeli soldier who pointed a machine gun at her as she tried to pass the checkpoints. She literally disarmed him with her humor.
Vagina Warriors know that compassion is the deepest form of memory.
They know that punishment does not make abusive people behave better. They know that it is more important to provide a space where the best can emerge rather than “teaching people a lesson.” I met an extraordinary activist in San Francisco, a former prostitute who had been abused as a child. Working with the correctional system, she devised a therapeutic workshop where convicted pimps and johns could confront their loneliness, insecurity and sorrow.
Vagina Warriors are done being victims. They know no one is coming to rescue them. They would not want to be rescued.
They have experienced their rage, depression, desire for revenge and they have transformed them through grieving and service. They have confronted the depth of their darkness. They live in their bodies.
They are community makers. They bring everyone in.
Vagina Warriors have a keen ability to live with ambiguity. They can hold two existing, opposite thoughts at the same time. I first recognized this quality during the Bosnian war. I was interviewing a Muslim woman activist in a refugee camp whose husband had been decapitated by a Serb. I asked her if she hated Serbs. She looked at me as if I were crazy. “No, no, I do not hate Serbs,” she said, “If I were to hate Serbs, then the Serbs would have won.”
Vagina Warriors know that the process of healing from violence is long and happens in stages. They give what they need the most, and by giving this they heal and activate the wounded part inside.
Many Vagina Warriors work primarily on a grassroots level. Because what is done to women is often done in isolation and remains unreported, Vagina Warriors work to make the invisible seen. Mary in Chicago fights for the rights of Women of Color so that they are not disregarded or abused; Nighat risked stoning and public shaming in Pakistan by producing “The Vagina Monologues” in Islamabad so that the stories and passions of women would not go unheard; Esther insists that the hundreds of disappeared girls in Juarez are honored and not forgotten.
For native people, a warrior is one whose basic responsibility is to protect and preserve life. The struggle to end violence on this planet is a battle. Emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical. It requires every bit of our strength, our courage, our fierceness. It means speaking out when everyone says to be quiet. It means going the distance to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. It means honoring the truth even if it means losing family, country, and friends. It means developing the spiritual muscle to enter and survive the grief that violence brings and, in that dangerous space of stunned unknowing, inviting the deeper wisdom.
Like Vaginas, Warriors are central to human existence, but they still remain largely unvalued and unseen. This year V-Day celebrates Vagina Warriors around the world, and by doing so we acknowledge these women and men and their work. In every community there are humble activists working every day, beat by beat to undo suffering. They sit by hospital beds, pass new laws, chant taboo words, write boring proposals, beg for money, demonstrate and hold vigils in the streets. They are our mothers, our daughters, our sisters, our aunts, our grandmothers, and our best friends. Every woman has a warrior inside waiting to be born. In order to guarantee a world without violence, in a time of danger and escalating madness, we urge them to come out.
CELEBRATE VAGINA WARRIORS. LET THEM BE HONORED AND SEEN. LET MORE BE BORN.
- Eve Ensler, Founder/Artistic Director, V-Day; playwright, “The Vagina Monologues”
09/2003
For Immediate Release
Contact: Susan Celia Swan
(917) 865-6003,
V-DAY 2004: CELEBRATING VAGINA WARRIORS:
FIRST DOCUMENTARY ABOUT V-DAY, “UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS,”
TO PREMIERE AT THE 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AND SIX LOCAL BENEFITS: BROADCAST DEBUT ON LIFETIME TELEVISION FEBRUARY 17, 2004 10PM ET/PT:
V-DAY 2004 SPOTLIGHT ON THE MISSING AND MURDERED WOMEN IN JUAREZ, MEXICO; V-DAY MARCH ON JUAREZ TO BE HELD FEBRUARY 14, 2004
Over 2000 community-based V-Day benefit events of “The Vagina Monologues” to take place February - March 2004 in the U.S. and around the world
December 2, 2003 – V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls founded by playwright Eve Ensler, announces its 2004 theme: Celebrating Vagina Warriors.
The theme will be reflected throughout the movement’s campaigns, special events, documentary (“Until The Violence Stops”) and media building on the momentum of V-Day’s 2003 season during which over 1,000 V-Day benefit events were presented by volunteer activists around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls, raising $4 million and benefiting over 1000 organizations. V-Day 2003 events took place in cities as far reaching as Ukiah, CA; Islamabad, Pakistan; Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Lubumbashi, Congo; and Nairobi, Kenya where the proceeds went to the re-opening of a women’s shelter that had closed its doors due to lack of funding.
V-DAY 2004: CELEBRATING VAGINA WARRIORS
Since V-Day launched its very first event in 1998, the movement has encountered incredible women working to end violence against women and girls in their communities. These women have often experienced violence personally or witnessed it within their communities and dedicated themselves toward ending such violence through effective, grassroots means. They have been the very heart of V-Day since it was conceived as a worldwide movement to empower and enable local activists to raise awareness and funds locally through V-Day benefit productions of "The Vagina Monologues." This year, V-Day's 2004 events and campaigns will celebrate these women whom Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler has dubbed ‘Vagina Warriors.’ Each V-Day production will select and honor up to three Vagina Warriors in its own community.
In every community there are humble activists working every day, beat by beat, to undo suffering. They sit by hospital beds, pass new laws, chant taboo words, write proposals, beg for money, demonstrate and hold vigils in the streets. Every woman has a warrior inside waiting to be born. In order to guarantee a world without violence, in a time of danger and escalating madness, we urge them to come out.
-Eve Ensler
The season will launch at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT with a special benefit premiere of “Until The Violence Stops,” the first documentary about V-Day (date and location details TBA). V-Day 2004 benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues” are currently being planned in over 900 cities and colleges around the world, with over 2000 events to attend in 41 countries. In Los Angeles, a V-Day for and by the transgender community is being produced as well as a V-Day in South Central. To date, locations include Madras, Bombay, & New Delhi, India; Antwerp, Belgium; Esch-Sur-Alvette, Luxembourg; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Beirut, Lebanon; Lubumbashi, Congo; Brno, Czech Republic; Helsinki, Finland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Denpasar and Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Bilboa, Spain; Vienna, Austria; and colleges including Harvard University, Whittier College, American University in Cairo, University of Delaware, University of Georgia; Notre Dame University; Tulane University; University of Southern Maine, MIT, Sarah Lawrence; University of Wyoming; and Cal State Polytechnic, to name a few.
This fall, V-Day has launched an evolving series of gatherings and events in NYC entitled “V-Day: Celebrating Vagina Warriors.” The first event featured an intimate evening with prominent leaders and media for Pakistani activist Shahnaz Bukhari, on the eve of her receiving the Civil Courage Prize. Ms. Bukhari is a recent V-Day beneficiary and the Founder and Director of the Progressive Women's Association (PWA), a grassroots organization in Pakistan which protects abused women, raises awareness of their plight, and pushes for legal and societal reform. This was followed by an evening on November 17at Culture Project@45 Bleecker Street featuring Iraqi activist, Founder of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, Yanar Mohammed interviewed by Eve Ensler. On Monday, December 15 at 7PM ET, the series continues at Culture Project with “Palestinian and Israeli Women Uninterrupted: An Evening Of Compassionate Listening,” featuring Israeli and Palestinian writers Liana Badr, Yvonne Deutsch, Rema Hammami, Rela Mazali interviewed by Eve Ensler, with a reading by Suad Amiry.
In 2004, outreach will expand and continue via two of V-Day’s fastest growing campaigns: the Indian Country Project and Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Over 25 tribal communities held V-Day benefits in 2003. The Indian Country Project, directed by Suzanne Blue Star Boy, focuses on raising the awareness of V-Day as a model for education about the issue of violence against Native women and communicates to the Native and Canadian First Nations communities through the V-Day College and Worldwide campaigns throughout the U.S. and internationally. Spearheaded by V-Day’s Special Representative Hibaaq Osman, awareness of the issue of violence against women grows daily in Africa, Asia and the Middle East via key events such as V-Day Islamabad 2003; the funding of the first women’s shelter in Egypt in Cairo; and the first V-Day events in India around International Women’s Day March 8, 2004.
VISIBILITY 2004
First Documentary about V-Day: Until The Violence Stops
In 2002, eight hundred cities participated in V-Day, which grew out of Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues." "Until the Violence Stops" is a one-hour commercial-free documentary that follows the grassroots impact of V-Day in five international communities while exposing the pervasive and cultural forms of violence that women experience all over the world. Directed by Abby Epstein, the story begins at a star-studded V-Day benefit at Harlem's Apollo Theater and travels to regional events in Ukiah California, the Philippines and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, culminating in the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls in Kenya. What emerges is an alternately devastating and hopeful look at the global and grassroots efforts in motion to stop violence against women and girls. Featuring appearances by Tantoo Cardinal, Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Amy Hill, Rosie Perez, and Isabella Rossellini among others.
“Until The Violence Stops” is slated to have its debut at a benefit premiere in January at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival launching the film and the V-Day 2004 season. The Sundance premiere will be followed by a series of V-Day benefit premieres in San Francisco, Ukiah (CA), Miami, Westchester, Atlanta, and Santa Fe.
The documentary will have its commercial free television broadcast premiere on Lifetime Television February 17, 2004 at 10:00PM ET/PT.
V-Day 2004 Spotlight on Women in Juarez
In the past decade, over 300 women and girls have been killed or disappeared in Juarez, immediately across the border from El Paso, Texas. Many of the victims were raped, mutilated and tortured. One of the victims was a six-year-old girl. Despite the fact that these murders have persisted over the past decade, there has not been significant progress in providing protection to the women of Juarez or in bringing the perpetrators to justice. For its 2004 benefit season and awareness campaign, V-Day will make Juarez its ‘Spotlight,’ placing the issue in front of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world and working closely with Amnesty International. Last month, Ensler traveled to Juarez for a story on the missing young women in Juarez to appear in Marie Claire’s March issue. On February 14, 2004, V-Day will mount a mass action - a V-Day March on Juarez - to make clear that we can wait no longer, we cannot stand by as more bodies appear.
V-Day Juarez 2004: THE END OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS ALL WOMEN BEGINS IN JUAREZ. We invite all citizens of the world to join us in a global action in Juarez, Mexico. We invite you to take back the streets, demand justice in the murders of the 300, hear the stories of mothers, openly dance for freedom and justice. Bring your mothers, your sisters, your brothers, your best friends. Stop the violence in Juarez and let it be the beginning of ending violence around the world. BE RESOURCEFUL - TAKE A PLANE, TRAIN, BUS, CAR, VAN, TAXI, TRUCK. GET THERE. THE NEW PARADIGM BEGINS IN JUAREZ WITH YOU.