MESSAGE FROM EVE
It was the women of Congo who first taught me the
power of dance.
For seven years I have had the privilege of working
side by side with my sisters from the DRC. They are
rising up and fighting back in the midst of an economic
war that has been raging for 14 years for the minerals
of their country. A war that has not only been responsible
for the death of eight million, but has been fought on the
bodies of hundreds of thousands of women, where
systematic rape and torture has been used to occupy
villages and control the mines. The grotesque atrocities
women have survived are beyond our capacity to
receive or comprehend and I wondered for quite
some time how Congolese women could not only
continue to live, but continue to live with the huge
power, energy, grace, and vision they have. Then it
occurred to me that the women of Congo dance.
And when they dance they dance with everything.
Sexual predation has become preparation and
training for all further dominations and occupations
occurring in the world today. After all, if you can
seize a woman’s body and take what you want without
consequence or reciprocity, you can do the same to
the Earth, you can do the same to countries, peoples,
workers. You can do the same to anyone or anything.
In the 16 years we have been working, V-Day has
tried endless approaches to solving this dilemma
and of course we have had many successes, but we
have not ended the violence. When we reached our
15th year we realized we had to go further and
escalate our efforts. We had to ask how we as a
global movement could take everything we have
done and push it to the next level.
It was there, dancing in Congo, when we realized
what that next step was, when we imagined what
would happen if one billion women and all the men
It was in the midst of dancing with a group of 200
who loved them danced together on one day and
survivors in Congo when I suddenly got the power of released the energy and power that comes through
dance to transform, to be dangerous and celebratory our bodies when we move together. And so we put
and disruptive and sexual and joyful. I understood
out the call to rise up and DANCE. The result was the
that dance can melt the walls of our divisions, dissolve biggest mass action to end violence against women
class and race, and create solidarity. That it exposes in the history of the world.
our bodies to each other and the world, and that it
The outcomes were vast and still being documented.
creates a collective energy and freedom that liberates Many women survivors have written to say they
ideas and the conviction and courage to make those reclaimed their bodies, their trust, and the right to
ideas happen.
fully inhabit public space by the protection and
For 16 years I have spent most of my hours and days
thinking about violence against women and girls. I
have traveled to over 70 countries and listened to the
stories of women in war time and in their every day
lives. What it has taught me is that violence against
women is a worldwide epidemic. It is the methodology
which sustains patriarchy and it is everywhere. It
may manifest itself differently from culture to culture
- female genital mutilation in one place, internet
bullying in another, gang rape here, acid burning
there - but I believe it is the mother issue of our times.
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inspiration of dancing in solidarity. Rising created a
wave of energy and courage that birthed many
public fo rums, panels, teach-ins. We witnessed
Presidents and members of parliaments, First Ladies,
the Queen Mother of Bhutan, and religious leaders
putting their bodies on the line, dancing and deepening
their commitment to the issue. We saw new coalitions
formed everywhere across many issues and lines,
thousands of new people coming into this issue who
had never spoken up before.