Pix of Tokbas supplied
Dubai
The White X Beach & Lounge at Rixos The Palm Dubai will swell in an unusual rising as it marks the ‘V-Day’ today.
Between 10 am and 11.30 am, around 200 residents from different nationalities and age groups will gather there, rise and dance to demand an end to violence against women.
“V-Day is a global movement started by activist Eve Ensler of the Vagina Monologues to stop violence against women and girls. The ‘V’ in ‘V Day’ stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina,” said Yonca Tokbas of the Sultans of Dubai who is coordinating the One Billion Rising event locally.
Tokbas said: “Dubai is pretty fair to its women compared to many other cities. Women can work, live and drive freely here. But globally, there is so much violence. And the difference lies in the laws and how they are applied.”
As the One Billion Rising website (http://onebillionrising.org/) states, the V- Day initiative is “a global strike, an invitation to dance, a call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends, an act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers, a refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given and a new time and a new way of being.”
Tokbas said participants in the dance are free to move in any style they want but a few would stick to a rehearsed structured format to the tune of Break the Chain. “But they will all be standing up to the rights of women and saying no to violence.”
“We are grateful to Rixos The Palm Dubai for supporting our cause,” she added.
