you know, the more i read about eve ensler

the more i like her. she's a courageous, intelligent and funny woman (of course the following video isn't funny at all)


Rape-camps lurk in the history of your gadgets
Posted by Cory Doctorow
On Boing Boing Gadgets, this wrenching video in which Eve Ensler explains that Congolese militias use rape to enforce discipline among a slave workforce that mines columbite-tantalite ore, a common raw material for many devices. ......................

even with everything else happening in the congo

the violence against women and girls is unimaginable. it's a horror show that you can't just switch off. it's something we ALL must be aware of and something we ALL must help to stop NOW

The Atrocities Committed Against Women and Girls in the Congo Defy Imagination
By Marianne Schnall, The Women's Media Center.

Behind the headlines heralding potentially positive developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), women and girls continue to be at risk. Media outlets report the arrest of rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda and the possibility of peace openings, but the eastern region where women and girls have been savagely raped and mutilated remains traumatized.

With all the bad news facing the world right now, you might prefer not knowing the horrific details of these women’s stories. “Yes, it’s difficult to hear about,” says playwright/activist Eve Ensler, “but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hear.”

It is precisely because Ensler feels not enough people are aware of the atrocities taking place in the Congo that she, and her anti-violence against women organization V-Day, are going on the road this month, in a five-city U.S. tour featuring her in conversation with Dr. Denis Mukwege, a heroic gynecologist and the director of Panzi Hospital in eastern Congo who treats, performs surgeries and offers counseling to the women there. Together Mukwege and Ensler will expose the extreme cases of violence against women in the DRC -- to date an estimated 400,000 women and girls have been raped -- and relay the stories of survivors who are coming together and breaking the silence.

The disturbing stories that have come out of the Congo defy imagination: women and young girls being raped by militia men in front of their families; rape victims ranging from as young as six months to as old as 83 years; women and girls faced with unwanted pregnancies and raped intentionally by men known to have AIDS. There is also a devastating epidemic of women and girls whose vaginas and reproductive organs have been completely destroyed from being violated with guns, bottles and sticks, often resulting in a condition called fistula, a rupture that results in the uncontrollable leakage of urine and feces. ..........

new orleans

code pink, eve ensler, jodie evans, v-day (NO, NOT valentines day), hurricane katrina and a dream come true

Oh When CODEPINK Came Marching In (To New Orleans On Eve's V-Day)
by Linda Milazzo

For my entire life - years before Hurricane Katrina - I fantasized about New Orleans. I dreamed of being decadent in the French Quarter in clubs where my music heroes played. I dreamed of tasting the food, studying the architecture, hearing the accents, and being cradled in the arms of the city – in the cream, black, brown and white blended arms of the city. I wanted to earn my beads at Mardi Gras, search the bayous for magic, and be transformed beyond the boundaries of my physical world. But the rigors of my life quashed my momentum and I didn’t visit the one American city I'd always longed to see -- until just last weekend -- nearly three years AFTER the hurricane.
Thanks to the brilliant Eve Ensler, and our intrepid CODEPINK cofounder, Jodie Evans, my dream of seeing New Orleans finally came true. On April 11th & 12th, Eve Ensler created “V To The Tenth” -- the tenth anniversary celebration of V-Day (Ensler’s global movement to end violence against women and girls). Not surprisingly, Jodie Evans, a longtime friend of Eve, and proponent of women's rights, was a sponsor of the V-Day event. As a result, an international call went out to CODEPINKers to travel to NOLA to celebrate V-Day. Over one hundred men and women signed on. This time I HAD TO GO!! ........