Monday, July 23, 2012

SILENCE IS VIOLENCE - against apathy



In lieu of the recent cases and cases we have been hearing forever and after, of incidents of violence against women, a few of us have decided to come together to raise our voices. Express dissent. For how can you not see the evil, hear it, speak of it when it exists all around you? How can there so much apathy when Pinki Pramanik was humiliated? How can you raise again and again questions of character of the victim when a minor gets assaulted on the streets of Guwahati by 20 men, all who's faces we have seen on Facebook but the police have been unable to reprimand?

We have decided to show our dissent on a working day, working for office goers, homemakers, freelancers, all of us in various roles. We will drop everything we are doing at 10 am and head for the venue to reach it by 11 am in the middle of the week on 26th July, a Thursday. We think enough is enough and this one day we refuse to contribute - to productivity in our offices, to the food larder at homes, to our clients or our children.

So, we will leave our 'work' and go to the venue to spend time with each other, sharing, sloganing, singing, telling stories, teaching each other what we know, learning from each other what we don't. And then from all of us in Bangalore we will write a note to the police in Assam to take action on the attackers of the victim of the Guwahati incident. We will sign our demand - not an appeal or a petition and send it. How long can they remain silent if women from every city, town and village do the same? How long? And if nothing happens still, we will do this again. And again.

Let us gather as women, as men who understand, as citizens, as humans, to show that even SILENCE IS VIOLENCE. Raise our voices. Be heard!

Organisations Joining hands for Silence is Violence:

Citizens Against Violence
Ridhdhi
Vimochana
rAFIKI

(Waiting for more)

PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN PLACARDS:

How to make a placard: Get some old cardboard box and flatten it to cut out the size of placard you want. Stick chart paper on it. Write/ paint the slogan/ pics you want on it in any language. make it large so people at least 15 feet away can read it. Make two holes on the top two corners with eyelets. Tie a string and hang it around your neck.

Date: 26th July 20122
Time: 11 am
venue: Town hall, Bangalore
Organised by  By Neelima Prasanna Aryan, Srimatha Ramanand and Arundhati Ghosh.
I think this is a great idea, and a good first step to take - I hope to see some of you there.

1 comment:

  1. May I use your image with the monkeys to further speak about this issue of silence being violence? I am starting a FB group and an art project surrounding this topic... Thank you so very much...

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