Sunday, February 3, 2013

#1billionrising rising in Turkey

Today brings the sad news that the Turkish police have found the body of American tourist Sarai Sierra, 33, from New York City. May she rest in peace. Thank you to all of the Turkish and American public servants who worked so hard to find her. I read the police formed a special team to view hours and hours of security camera footage to try and trace her steps. I can't imagine anything more boring that watching all that. I'm grateful they did.

Sarai Sierra's death brings reflection at the vast epidemic of violence against women globally. Global activist Eve Ensler is asking all of us, women - and especially the men who love them, to strike, rise, and dance, rising up to demand an end to the routine daily violence against women.

#1billionrising is the audaciously-named event Eve Ensler has created to demand an end to violence against women worldwide. Can you imagine trying to organize 1 billion people? Have you ever heard of anyone trying to do that before? What an amazing idea. She chose that number because that is the estimated number of women who have been violated by violence worldwide.

As of this writing, there are over 40 events planned for Turkey. The first one starts today at 2 p.m. Participants will be doing this extremely fun Turkish folk dance called the Halay (actually, pretty much all Turkish dance is fun). Here is the list of events for Turkey. Here is where you can find an event in the country you're living in. And here is the anthem, although the many ways people will be dancing is of course, varied and global. #1billionrising!


3 comments:

BacktoBodrum said...

Such sad news. Her poor family.

Senior Dogs Abroad said...

You know, Karen, I'm very impressed with all the events scheduled for Turkey. And in spite of violence against women being a real problem here, it is getting so, so much more attention than before. That's very encouraging. Thanks for the post.

Karen said...

Dear Senior Dogs, I completely agree that the number of events in Turkey is very impressive - and all of the places too. There are events way out in Gaziantep. The people of Izmir, Turkey have over 4,000 likes on their #1billionrising Facebook page. That is fantastic!

 
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