Day 5
Check our short video on facebook...https://www.facebook.com/saolproject/videos/1722289061238659/
Day 4
Our Remembrance Tree - for all those who died including the women and children who died as a result of partner violence:
Watch our friend and poet Rachel Hegarty as she reads her poem 'Mrs Murphy' to us at the end of our visit to the Seamus Heaney Exhibition https://www.facebook.com/saolproject/videos/2513846375561356/
Day 3
From the Women's Aid website, "Coercive control is a persistent pattern of controlling, coercive and threatening behaviour including all or some forms of domestic abuse (emotional, physical, financial, sexual including threats) by a boyfriend, partner, husband or ex. It traps women in a relationship and makes it impossible or dangerous to leave. This can have a serious impact including the fear of violence, cause serious alarm and distress and can result in a woman giving up work, changing her routines, losing contact with family and friends. Coercive control can damage a woman’s physical and emotional well-being" (https://www.womensaid.ie/help/coercive-control.html).
Rita Ann Higgins gave us one of her poems to publish with our book of poetry, 'Chicken soup for the SAOL' (which you can download free of charge from here: https://saolproject.ie/ChickenSoupfortheSaol.php). Among other things, we think it captures coercive control particularly well...
Mirage
At least she had the egg money
and no one was going to get their paws on that.
She would not have been so guarded,
if he had spilled a thimbleful of nice
in her direction ever.
But no, from day one the toughness was there.
His dry lips frightened her,
she knew that he had not spoken to anyone for hours, maybe days.
Now it was her turn to hear the barb of his roll call.
Off he went down Resentment Drive and he let her have it
- about how sorry he was the day he ever laid eyes on this no-good-good-for-nothing,
who couldn't even boil an egg.
And if she heard it often enough,
and she did,
she began to believe it
and it made her smaller.
Her shrinkage was slow to start
but in the end she felt like
a speck of dirt
a flick of ash
or something in front
of the eye.
Rita Ann Higgins
Day 2
Watch our video singing 'I can't keep quiet' at https://www.facebook.com/saolproject/videos/1382056715304728/
One True Love
What are you going in there for? Telling people our business, is it?
If you’re worrying about anything, you can tell me, love.
But what would that little head of yours be worrying about anyway,
Sure, don’t I look after you better than anyone does, love?
And they won’t want to be seeing you when you’re dressed like that.
I told you not to be wearing skirts like that, love.
I’ll have to give you reason to cover yourself up a bit more
If your tiny little brains can’t remember to show a bit of common decency, love.
I suppose you’d have to be going into places like that, seeing as you’ve no friends or family and seeing as I’m the only true friend who’s stood by you, love.
Places like that are only for losers anyway, no need for you to be going in there.
And anyway, I’ve someone I want you to meet, love
He’s a friend, a mate, so don’t let me down, love.
Put something on your face, will you, I can’t let him meet you looking like that.
You’re my darling, though, aren’t you? My one true love, love.
Come on now. Come when I tell you.
Written for the UN Day for the Eradication of Violence to Women, 25th November 2019
1 in 3 women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner
Only 52% of women married or in a union freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care
Worldwide, almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday; while 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM)
1 in 2 women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or family in 2017; while only 1 out of 20 men were killed under similar circumstances
71% of all human trafficking victims worldwide are women and girls, and 3 out of 4 of these women and girls are sexually exploited
Violence against women is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria combined.
Day 1
Watch our video singing 'I can't keep quiet' at https://www.facebook.com/saolproject/videos/1382056715304728/
For some background information, here is a piece from the UN's Internation Day to End Violence Against Women, November 25th 2019
Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape
Efforts to prevent and end violence against women at the global, regional and national levels shows that there is widespread impunity on sexual violence and rape.
Starting on this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November), and for the next two years, the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, a multi-year effort aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls, will focus on the issue of rape as a specific form of harm committed against women and girls in times of peace or war.
The 2019 theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is ‘Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape’. Like in previous years, this year's International Day will mark the launch of 16 days of activism that will conclude on 10 December 2019, which is International Human Rights Day.
Several public events are being coordinated for this year's International Day. Iconic buildings and landmarks will be ‘oranged’ to recall the need for a violence-free future.
Join the campaign! You can participate in person or on social media using our official material!
Use the hashtags: #GenerationEquality #orangetheworld and #spreadtheword.
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