Violence Against Women Is a Choice Men Make: 4 Ways to Make the Right One [View all]

[redqueen]

"Violence is a choice. And it is choice that men make. We can choose to stop it." -Patrick Stewart, spokesperson for Ring The Bell, a campaign calling on men to be partners in the fight against violence against women.

I know that everyone has rearranged life this week because the UN Commission on the Status of Women, focusing on preventing and eliminating violence against women, is going on. And, tomorrow, you and everyone you know will no doubt drop everything to celebrate International Women's Day. By the way, did you know that today is White Ribbon Day? Do you know what White Ribbon Day is? Because, I'm thinking that it shouldn't take gendercide and gang rapes of children and women to motivate good men to act against pervasive injustice that all women and girls are subjected to in one degree or another. And, even that doesn't do it in some places that remain surreally, perversely "divided" on the subject. Women are not perpetrating widespread violence against one another or against men -- in homes or in war. And yet, whenever I go to meetings, seminars or schools to discuss this topic, I enter rooms full of women. This is immensely frustrating. This is why I think tomorrow should be called International Where are the Men?Day. I know many men believe in equality, some are activists and allies for change. Every day I appreciate the work they do. But there are simply not enough of them.

I know I'm beating a steady drum, but it bears repeating since one in three women are still subjected to pervasive violence every day: the greatest human rights injustice on this planet is daily, perpetual, profound and systemic violence against girls and women. No country, including "developed" "democracies" "at peace," is immune from this fact. A visitor to this planet would ask, in stunned disbelief, how it was possible that we'd so forgotten we are born equally human.

Actor Patrick Stewart, who grew up in a home riven by domestic violence and writes and speaks often on the topic, is headlining a new global initiative, Ring the Bell: One million men. One million promises, being launched tomorrow by the pioneering social innovation movement Breakthrough. Their viral Bell Bajao movement (Bell Bajao means "ring the bell&quot engages men in preventing and eliminating violence against women. Stewart movingly explains why men's participation is so crucial:

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/violence-against-women-is_4_b_2828654.html