A Thousand Men In Ecuador Read Letters Of Women Touched By Violence
A Thousand Men In Ecuador Read Letters Of Women Touched By Violence
In a bullfighting ring in Quito, Ecuador, 1,000 men will gather together to demand greater awareness of violence against women.
Katherine Brooks
Senior Arts & Culture Editor, The Huffington Post.
11/24/2015 09:15 am ET | Updated Nov 24, 2015
In Ecuador, roughly one in six women have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence. To put it another way, 3 million Ecuadorians have counted themselves a victim of gender-based violence in their lifetime. According to the same Pan American Health Organization research, 38 percent of women in Ecuador have been physically abused, 26 percent sexually abused, and 17 percent have been victims of patrimonial violence. These statistics, however bleak, are still merely numbers. Numbers that look eerily similar to statistics across the globe.
In 2011, a campaign by UN Women attempted to transform black-and-white stats like the ones above into robust, personal stories by calling for women to submit real testimonies about their experience with violence. In just three months, the project, dubbed Cartas de Mujeres, collected a total of more than 10,000 letters from women across the country. Nearly half of those letters detailed instances of family and domestic violence. In response, the city of Quito decided to criminalize the sexual harassment of women in public places.
The Cartas de Mujeres project continues to receive letters from women in Ecuador and beyond, and one very socially engaged artist is taking notice. In honor of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Los Angeles-based Suzanne Lacy is gathering 1,000 men in a bullfighting ring in Quinto to read these letters addressing injustice in their country. Together, they hope to point out the need for continued action and legislation to help combat violence.
"This is the time to engage men more significantly in conversations on intimate partner and sexual violence," Lacy explained in a statement to The Huffington Post. "Is it a global epidemic, or are we only now beginning to notice what years of activism [have] been trying to tell us?"
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/violence-against-women_56537a91e4b0879a5b0c096f?utm_hp_ref=arts
(Jesus Christ, the slaughtering rink is so close everyone is nearly sitting right next to the animal they are torturing and slaughtering for their entertainment. Un-####ing believable. How could ANY society ever be legitimate which supports this moral perversion? Hope they get their ####ing money's worth.)[/ i]
