Celebrating 100 years of feminism

Actress Thandie Newton, comedien Ruby Wax and politician Yvette Cooper join the campaign This morning outside the Houses of Parliament in London, men and women came together to dance as a united front against sexual violence and domestic abuse as part of a semi-coordinatedglobal movement against female oppression.
Before the media hawks swooped in to capture speeches by actress Thandie Newton and other high-profile celebrities involved with the campaign, a group of students were seen filming a documentary about the suffragette movement, completely oblivious to the media event.
It was by strange coincidence that this morning's One Billion Rising flashmob event should have run into these students, trying to recapture the early days of feminism. These two events, occurring simultaneously forced me to question: why do women, even one hundred years after the Suffragettes launched their campaign to liberate women through emancipation, still have to fight for their rightful place as equals in society? Why are we still battling violence, sexual abuse and misogyny?
One Billion Rising was celebrating the 15th anniversary of V-day, a feminist movement that raises awareness and funds for women through benefit productions of Eve Ensler’s iconic play, The Vagina Monologues. So far, the campaign has raised $90 million whilst educating millions of people around the world about the issue of violence against women, and funding relief centres for abused women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Egypt and Iraq.
The campaign is making a stand  for the "one billion women" who will be raped or abused at some point in their lives. The women dancing in London today, joined hands and rose up with women from over 200 countries around the world battling male oppression in their own societies. Women today have far more freedom now than in the 1850's – indeed the issues we are fighting today are entirely different, and the language we use is bolder than ever before. However, oppressive female stereotypes continue to plague women.
The global feminist movement is focused on issues specific to individual regions. One Billion Rising recently gained a huge following in India, where men and women demanded how a country so swiftly becoming one of the world’s leading economic powerhouses, could witness such a brutal gang-rape and murder of a woman on a bus in its capital city. One Billion Rising is a call to arms for men and women to fight for equality across the world.
The 25 women recently raped in Cairo's Tahrir Square during protests, also sparked anger and revulsion amongst Egyptian feminists.
Dr Azza Kamel, President of ACT (Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development) in Egypt said: “They want women to sit at home and not in the street.”
Third-wave feminism, including campaigns like One Billion Rising has come a long way since the 1900s. Its mode of expression is bolder and more brazen, and its approach is internationalist, encompassing the range of issues that face women around the world.
Thandie Newton became the figurehead of the British feminist movement in London today. Addressing the assembled crowds, she said: “One Billion Rising is going across cultural lines, political lines, class lines – it’s a pandemic, and different parts of the world are responding differently to the campaign, focusing on what is most problematic for them.”
At the heart of the issue of violence against women, is  gender stereotypes which continue to pervade the global media, the workplace and the home. One Billion Rising is an important campaign because after 100 years of feminism, women are still fighting oppression around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0z6PNU4HIc