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‘One Billion Rising’

From India to Egypt to US, wo-men are fighting for freedom. Women’s struggle against rape, right to represent in legislature, voice in decision-making mechanism continues to develop into a worldwide movement with revolutionary content. But much of left, including the communist and socialist left, both here and abroad seems unable to hear this radical dimension of women’s struggles throughout the world, be it in India or South Africa. In India the left is satisfied with the idea of women’s reservation in parliament as if it will solve all the hazards women face, irrespective of caste, race and religion, day in and day out.

Violence against women is, tragically, an international phenomenon and women worldwide are fighting it. While the form of the demonstrations may differ, the content is strikingly the same as women in each country articulate that violence stems from their own cultures. They reject the idea that it is women who should change their behaviour or dress more modestly, stay hidden, stay veiled, wear this or that, stay in at night-the list never ends. Rather, women are demanding that men must change, that their entire societies must be transformed, they must change their patriarchal outlook.

Women have-explicitly-positioned themselves at the centre of the struggle, raising questions about the needed totality of any revolution. It must include all segments of society.

That women, globally, are challenging very basic aspects of their societies-and this is true in both developing and developed nations-is new. What shines through so luminously in countries like Egypt and Tunisia and is also evident in the US, is that the struggle is about new, really human relationships, and that it is a revolutionary struggle.

Today, women's liberation has shown itself to be the heart-the driving force-of all genuine revolution. Any separation opens the door to counter-revolution. The ongoing struggles for freedom make clear that nothing short of a banner of new human relationships, from Man/Woman to labour is needed.

'One Billion Rising' action on Valentine's Day was conceived by Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues." The name comes from the fact that one in every three women in the world, that's one billion, will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. One Billion Rising called on people to strike and dance to call attention to violence against women. The call to dance was inspiring. One Billion Risisng spread like wildfire through India and elsewhere. Tens of thousands joined rallies and dance events there. Women saw it, as one said, "as a new struggle for freedom." In Mumbai alone, more than 1,000 people came together to take a pledge to respect women.

In Somalia, more than 300 women gathered in Mogadishu. About 600 people danced and sang in one of at least five events in Egypt. In Indonesia, where a high court judge had recently joked that women might enjoy rape, there were many 'One Billion Rising' actions across the islands. There were 40 events in New York City, several in Turkey and Germany; and 1,500 danced in Iceland. Women organized flash mobs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; in City of Joy in Congo; and in Bangladesh 1,000 acid attack survivors took part in rallies across the country.

Women also danced in Tunisia. The recent assassination of opposition leader Chokri Belaid shows the ruling Islamist party Ennahda's complete unwillingness to rein in hard-line Islamist Salafists. Belaid's murder was preceded by attacks on women and others, as homegrown reactionaries try to destroy Tunisia's family code, one of the most progressive in the Arab world.
[contributed]

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 40, Apr 14- -20, 2013

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