Darlington Meeting House goes orange
Friends in Darlington lit their Meeting house in orange to mark the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November
Darlington Friends lit up their Meeting house in orange last month to mark the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The day, on 25 November, started sixteen days of activism aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls, and concluded on 10 December, Human Rights Day.
Quakers in County Durham said they chose to illuminate the Meeting house in orange to fit the 2019 theme for the day ‘Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape’. This year’s focus was on rape. However, the organisers pointed out that violence against women can manifest in ways such as: intimate partner violence (physical and psychological); sexual violence and harassment; human trafficking; female genital mutilation; and child marriage. One Friend from another Meeting who wished to stay anonymous told the Friend that she thought Quakers could do more to raise awareness of the issue. She said: ‘My impression is many regard it as a fight that has already been won in this country – when it hasn’t.’
According to UN News: ‘A third of all women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, half of women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or family, and violence perpetrated against women is as common a cause of death and incapacity for those of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than road accidents and malaria combined.’
UN secretary-general António Guterres said in his message to mark the day that the statistics mean ‘someone around you… a family member, a co-worker, a friend, or even you yourself’ has experienced this type of abuse. He added: ‘Sexual violence against women and girls is rooted in centuries of male domination. Let us not forget that the gender inequalities that fuel rape culture are essentially a question of power imbalances.’
According to the UN, certain women are particularly vulnerable, such as: young girls and older women; LGBT+ women; migrants and refugees; indigenous women and ethnic minorities; women and girls living with HIV and disabilities; or through humanitarian crises.
Experts say that a key driver of domestic violence is economic inequality. Two women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales alone.
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