Delhi’s date with Eve Ensler
1 Jan 2013 9:43 PM GMT
Statistics say that one out of every three females in the world has faced some form of violence against her simply because she is a woman. But Delhiites need not know about statistics. Ask any woman around you and she will tell you of the harassment she faces day in and day out — if not at home then definitely once she steps out.
While the Capital is protesting the recent gangrape and passing away of a braveheart, the fact remains that 16 rapes have happened since that fateful 16 December night. And in most cases, the rapists have been known to the victims — neighbours, uncles, cousins and even friends.
The fact remains that a woman is not safe. More so in the national capital. And therefore, there could not have been a more fitting stage for Eve Ensler — leading feminist and playwright — to launch her campaign 1 Billion Rising on 14 January. The movement, according to a statement from Poor-Box Productions (of which Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and Ensler are a part) and Make-A-Difference Foundation, is to ‘re-energise and refocus resources and attention on the scourge of violence against women’.
‘We at Poor-box Productions, who have had a long-standing relationship with Ensler and her work, will be working towards making 1 Billion Rising in India a huge success,’ it further states.
Ensler will be coming to India in January to partner with Poor-Box Productions and others to energise and activate people towards this new movement and the objective will be to channelise the energy to end violence against women and girls. There will be a series of educational, informative and fund-raising events as part of the visit. The organisation also plans to rope in people from various strata of the society — from NGOs and corporate leaders to politicians, students, the media, lawyers and the civil society.
The organisation also plans to raise funds for SNEHA (a shelter catering to survivors of violence in Dharavi in Mumbai) and give awards to some individual survivors of and warriors of violence against females.
And this is not all. The Capital will once again get a chance to witness another performance of Ensler’s famous The Vagina Monologues (the Hindi version of the act took place a couple of months back). The Vagina Monologues encourages women to be comfortable with their body and take away the stigma that women attach with the vagina.
This time, it will be a celebration of 10 years of The Vagina Monologues in India. The play was brought here by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and Kaizaad Kotwal as a way of using art to start a dialogue about ending violence against women and girls.
The play brings along stories of various women and their brushes with sexual harassment. Kotwal and her team — Dolly Thakore, Dilnaz Irani, Rasika Duggal, Varshaa Agnihotri — Indianise the stories so that the audience can identify. So in place are the accents that are so common to various regions of the country.
While getting the audience in splits, the play also manages to engage the audience and get the message across. They bring together experiences of girls and women of all ages.
There are stories of a Maharashtrian woman who met a man who ‘loved to look at her’ to a Parsi woman who hasn’t been ‘down there since 1944’. It is enlightening but not preachy. We would still recommend it to both men and women. It is therefore high time we leave the Victorian morality behind and be at ease with our bodies.
DETAIL
At: Blue Frog, One Style Mile, Mehrauli
When: 8 January, 9 pm
Phone: 30800300
Entry: Rs 1,000
While the Capital is protesting the recent gangrape and passing away of a braveheart, the fact remains that 16 rapes have happened since that fateful 16 December night. And in most cases, the rapists have been known to the victims — neighbours, uncles, cousins and even friends.
The fact remains that a woman is not safe. More so in the national capital. And therefore, there could not have been a more fitting stage for Eve Ensler — leading feminist and playwright — to launch her campaign 1 Billion Rising on 14 January. The movement, according to a statement from Poor-Box Productions (of which Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and Ensler are a part) and Make-A-Difference Foundation, is to ‘re-energise and refocus resources and attention on the scourge of violence against women’.
‘We at Poor-box Productions, who have had a long-standing relationship with Ensler and her work, will be working towards making 1 Billion Rising in India a huge success,’ it further states.
Ensler will be coming to India in January to partner with Poor-Box Productions and others to energise and activate people towards this new movement and the objective will be to channelise the energy to end violence against women and girls. There will be a series of educational, informative and fund-raising events as part of the visit. The organisation also plans to rope in people from various strata of the society — from NGOs and corporate leaders to politicians, students, the media, lawyers and the civil society.
The organisation also plans to raise funds for SNEHA (a shelter catering to survivors of violence in Dharavi in Mumbai) and give awards to some individual survivors of and warriors of violence against females.
And this is not all. The Capital will once again get a chance to witness another performance of Ensler’s famous The Vagina Monologues (the Hindi version of the act took place a couple of months back). The Vagina Monologues encourages women to be comfortable with their body and take away the stigma that women attach with the vagina.
This time, it will be a celebration of 10 years of The Vagina Monologues in India. The play was brought here by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and Kaizaad Kotwal as a way of using art to start a dialogue about ending violence against women and girls.
The play brings along stories of various women and their brushes with sexual harassment. Kotwal and her team — Dolly Thakore, Dilnaz Irani, Rasika Duggal, Varshaa Agnihotri — Indianise the stories so that the audience can identify. So in place are the accents that are so common to various regions of the country.
While getting the audience in splits, the play also manages to engage the audience and get the message across. They bring together experiences of girls and women of all ages.
There are stories of a Maharashtrian woman who met a man who ‘loved to look at her’ to a Parsi woman who hasn’t been ‘down there since 1944’. It is enlightening but not preachy. We would still recommend it to both men and women. It is therefore high time we leave the Victorian morality behind and be at ease with our bodies.
DETAIL
At: Blue Frog, One Style Mile, Mehrauli
When: 8 January, 9 pm
Phone: 30800300
Entry: Rs 1,000
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