Despite an emerging women’s movement, the rape of women and girls continues as the UN looks the other way.
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Just over a year ago, in answering whether sexual violence in conflict was an issue that the U.N. Security Council should take on, then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proclaimed, “I am proud that, today, we respond to that lingering question with a resounding ‘yes!'”
I spent the last month in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), much of my time in Goma. There, I was privileged to be part of the first public testimonies where women survivors of rape and sexual torture came forward in front hundreds to bravely break the silence on the terrible atrocities done to their bodies and souls during the twelve-year conflict that has embroiled the DRC.
They were the perfect parents. I was 23. I was depressed and fragile and hardly here in this world. I was writing and writing as a way of survival. They took me under their wing. They pushed me and fed me and criticized my script with red pencils, they nurtured me and encouraged me to be funny. To always be funny. But mainly, they believed in me.
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears.
In the Congo, where tens of thousands of women are brutally raped every year, Dr. Denis Mukwege repairs their broken bodies and souls.
She’s an Oscar winner, a philanthropist and a mother. Take a look back at how Jennifer Connelly made her way from a child actor to an Oscar-winning movie star.
Welcome to the next ten years where together we will raise the stakes, go further, go deeper, increase the power and change the story of women.
In my global travels on behalf of V-Day, I meet Vagina Warriors who have dedicated their lives to ending violence against women.
If we are truly interested in security, let’s begin with securing all people the basic human right to food, shelter, drinkable water, healthcare, a place to live, safety, and a livable earth.