Saturday 5 March 2011

Million Women Rise March 2011!

Hello hello hello! 

I am back, and this time with pictures from the Million Women Rise March! It was today (5th March 2011) and I was stewarding. Let me just say this (well type this) now... The Marches are always amazing but this year was AAAMMMAAAZIINGG to the extreme! It was wonderful to see so many women and various organisations that do wonderful things! 

So, not many people are sure about what Million Women Rise do and if you're one of those people, check out the website! www.millionwomenrise.com 

We often forget, or are just conditioned to ignore, what happens to our sisters internationally and locally. This March and many of the organisations present at the march, reclaim, empower and support women to really have the lives that we deserve. 

Women from all over the UK came to the March and plenty of women came representing women in different countries such as Iran, Palestine and Congo. 

Here are some statistics taken from the Million Women Rise march about what is really happening today, in the UK and internationally. 

The Reality in the UK Today

  • One woman in four will experience domestic violence at some point in her life
  • Domestic violence has more repeat victims than any other crime (on average there will have been 35 assaults before a victim calls the police)
  • Two women are murdered every week by their partner or ex partner
  • One incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute
  • One woman in four will experience sexual assault as an adult
  • Only 5% of rapes reported to the police result in the perpetrator being convicted in court
  • Women are more worried about rape than any other crime
  • 250 cases of forced marriage are reported each year
  • Up to 1,420 women per year are trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation
  • One woman a month is murdered in the name of ‘so called’ honour.
  • Nearlly 90% of local authorities do not have a rape crisis centre
  • Over 20,000 girls could be at risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the UK.

Internationally

  • It is estimated that a woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read .
  • In Lithuania, 20 to 50 percent of prostitutes are believed to be minors. Children as young as age 11 are known to work as prostitutes.
  • Every year, 2 million girls between the ages of 5 and 15 are coerced, abducted, sold or trafficked into the illegal sex market.
  • 2 million females are killed before of at birth simply because of their sex.
  • One woman dies every minute from pregnancy related causes, most of which are preventable
  • It is estimated that one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abuse in her lifetime.
  • Among women aged 15-44 years, gender-based violence accounts for more death and disability than the combined effects of cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war.

So, we marched through Oxford street, Piccadilly Circus  from Speakers corner (Hyde Park, London) at 1.30 to Trafalgar sq at around 3pm (where we had some brilliant female speakers). Basically stopping the whole of Central London!! Plenty of women joined us while we were marching and there were great chants too! 

Ok, enough babbling, here are some (a lot of) pics from the March! 







































1 comment: