As part of the 2003 V-World vision, V-Day has launched a new initiative to end violence against women and girls in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. It is spearheaded by newly appointed V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman, Associate Barbara Wien, and fellow Nkem Onwuamaegbu.
This new V-Day initiative has been created during a time of great uncertainty and turmoil in these regions, and is committed to building broad political and social movements for women's rights on three levels: national, regional and international. The V-Day team is currently working in partnership with diverse women's networks in Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Pakistan, India, Kenya and Afghanistan to strengthen and support their common agenda of ending violence against women and girls - to end bride burnings, female genital mutilation (FGM), honor killings, sexual assault, rape and many other forms of gender-based violence. The team collaborates only with those organizations that have a commitment to working across ethnic, religious, and class lines.
Key coalition-building efforts have already begun. V-Day participated in the "Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy" (held in Brussels December 2001), as one of the main sponsors and donors. As a follow-up to the Brussels Summit, Hibaaq traveled with Eve Ensler to Afghanistan in March 2002 to participate in International Women's Day in Kabul, which was being celebrated for the first time in five years. At this time V-Day sponsored a series of roundtable talks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for which it brought more than 100 Afghan women, including the Brussels participants, together to listen to their feedback and to encourage strategic alliances among the women's groups. At the Brussels summit, the women's groups cited numerous times that a lack of communication was the major obstacle preventing them from effectively working together on a common agenda. To help solve this problem, V-Day provided over 16 satellite telephones to women's groups, including the Afghan Women's Ministry, to build better communication and develop a network among the groups.
In 2002, Hibaaq also traveled to Kenya with Eve to attend the opening of the first V-Day Safe House - a safe haven for young girls seeking refuge from FGM; to Sri Lanka to speak at the International Conference on "The Role of Women in Peace Building and Constitution Making"; and to Uganda to explore trends and future challenges of women's rights in Africa, identify key areas of concern and to formulate recommendations.
On the national level, the team will convene a diverse, strategic core group of women and women's organizations within each country to become the "Friends of V-Day." The aim of the groups will be to define violence in their cultural context, identify the specific types of violence happening in their communities, and prioritize one campaign and one strategy to stop violence against women and girls in their country using the substantial income raised from V-Day events. Through this inclusive, broad?based, participatory approach, the expressed needs of local partners will lead and focus V-Day's work. The "Friends of V-Day" will work together as a coalition, cross-fertilizing ideas and experiences and supporting key campaigns to have maximum impact.
Taking the work to a second level, "Friends of V-Day" networks will also forge strategic alliances across borders on a regional basis to stop honor killings, bride burnings, FGM and other life-threatening issues for women, and help end the isolation that may be felt in individual countries. An annual regional meeting will be held to compare experiences, evaluate campaigns and develop future strategies.
We will urge our country partners to work through their bureaucracies, militaries, parliaments, women politicians and other avenues to adopt our new international 1% campaign. This multilateral, multinational campaign demands that countries direct 1% of their military budgets to the defense and security of women, the most vulnerable civilian population.
We are honored to have Hibaaq Osman on board with V-Day. Born in Somalia, Hibaaq has been involved in women's rights issues in Africa for over 15 years. Building on existing cultural and political beliefs in various Third World countries, she has collaborated with religious leaders, scholars, women's rights activists, governmental organizations, research institutes and universities to bring women's rights issues to international attention. She has helped to launch women's networks and establish women's rights organizations, most recently SIHA (Strategic Initiatives for the Horn of Africa). Hibaaq was previously a Senior Fellow of the Academy for Political Leadership and Participation at the University of Maryland.
