One Billion No More

One Billion Rising has been launched in several countries, and on Sunday Sri Lanka joined the growing list.

Women in Need conducted a walk the same day that led to Galle Face where OBR Sri Lanka  was launched, with motivating speeches from inspirational women, street theater, song and dance.

Pic by Tehani Ariyaratne

Pic by Tehani Ariyaratne

At Galle Face for the launching of OBR Sri Lanka!

Pic by Megara Tegal

Street theatre performance about VAW

Pic by Megara Tegal

The engrossed audience

Pic by Megara Tegal

 

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Day: Thirteen

This image is free of copyrights. Feel free to use this image to raise awareness about gender based violence.

Day thirteen features a photograph by Rushda Mohinudeen.

While gender-based violence has recently emerged as a salient topic in the human security community, it has been framed principally with respect to violence against women and girls, particularly sexual violence. In this article, I argue that gender-based violence against men (including sexual violence, forced conscription, and sex-selective massacre) must be recognized as such, condemned, and addressed by civilian protection agencies and proponents of a ‘human security’ agenda in international relations. Men deserve protection against these abuses in their own right; moreover, addressing gender-based violence against women and girls in conflict situations is inseparable from addressing the forms of violence to which civilian men are specifically vulnerable.

– Sage Journals Online

Watch this blog for the next 4 days. We’ll be posting a featured photograph each day till 10 December as part of WMC campaign against GBV.

For more information about this campaign click here

Rushda Mohinudeen is a member of the steering committee of Beyond Borders. She heads ReachOut (a women’s rights group), works at an advertising agency and enjoys calling people koonjis. More of her photography can be found here.

Day: Seven

This image is free of copyrights. Feel free to use this image to raise awareness about gender based violence.

Day Seven features a photograph by Sara Kellapatha.

Every year, large numbers of Sri Lankan women travel to countries in the Middle East to be employed as housemaids and in doing so, they leave behind their families, most often husbands and children. What some of them may not know is that the female children in these families are often subject to sexual abuse and rape by their fathers. These girls are very young, sometimes as young as nine. And they are left helpless, silent screams pounding in their heads. Often, they will not take any action, except tell their tales to a relative or friend. But nothing ever happens. The father will come home and ensure that his daughter is subject to these vile actions. How horrible must these young girls feel? For their own father to touch them in places they will feel uncomfortable. For their own father to rape them repeatedly. This is an issue which should be addressed largely in Sri Lanka.

– Sarah

Watch this blog for the next 10 days. We’ll be posting a featured photograph each day till 10 December as part of WMC campaign against GBV.

For more information about this campaign click here

Sarah is a member of Beyond Borders Forum Theatre group. She’s a freelance journalist, food columnist and she blogs www.turquoisecupcakes.wordpress.com. Her opinions are her own.