The ‘One Billion Rising’ on the Streets of Delhi: “We want a just love, a love based on equality.”

[pampango]

The ‘One Billion Rising’ on the Streets of Delhi


An event organized as part of the ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign in New Delhi on Thursday.

On Valentine’s Day in Delhi, the pink band was ubiquitous, tied around arms, on wrists and foreheads, around necks and backpacks. Printed on it were the words “Enough! No More Violence Against Women.”

On Thursday evening, as many set out for the customary Valentine’s Day dinner in the nation’s capital, several hundred men, women and children gathered at Parliament Street for an unorthodox celebration: a movement using music and dance to oppose violence against women.

“We don’t want violence; we want love,” said Kamla Bhasin, the movement’s South Asia coordinator, to a cheering crowd of about 500 people. She rejected love in the form of an Archies card or expensive jewelry, saying: “We want a just love, a love based on equality.”

In nearly 200 countries around the world, people took to the streets Thursday with a carnival spirit as part of One Billion Rising, a campaign initiated by Eve Ensler, the author of “The Vagina Monologues,” to highlight violence against women. In India, the message mirrored widespread public sentiment that has swelled after the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in Delhi in December, bringing women’s rights and safety to the center stage of civic and political discourse.


Hundreds gathered on Delhi’s Parliament street holding banners and flags.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/the-one-billion-rising-on-the-streets-of-delhi/

[niyad]

1. k and r--thank you so much for sharing this with us.

[DURHAM D]

2. Beautiful - thanks for sharing.

[LiberalEsto]

3. K&R

This is wonderful!
Goddess bless this uprising.