#16Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence
Let’s end the violence pandemic – University of Wrocław joins Orange the World campaign
Does violence have a gender? The data speak clearly. Dr Łukasz Prus, the UWr Rector’s representative for safety of students and doctoral students quotes: 2/3 of victims of domestic violence are women. 95% victims of domestic violence are women and children.
The problem of Gender-Based Violence is being highlighted by the Orange the World campaign, organised over 16 days in November/December by Soroptimist International. The University of Wrocław academic community is joining in this initiative.
The action starts on 25 November, and its symbol is the colour orange. Why this day? Dr Małgorzata Kolankowska, spokesperson for equal treatment and anti-discrimination, answers:
In 1981, in Bogotá, representatives of Latin American women’s organisations established 25 November as a day to fight violence against women – in memory of the Mirabal sisters, also known as Las Mariposas or the Butterflies. They were activists opposed to the dictatorial rule of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. On 25 November 1960, the activists were brutally murdered by the regime’s security forces. This day became a symbolic day of opposition to violence against women.
Gender-motivated violence affects many environments – it is also known to occur in universities. Dr Łukasz Prus relates:
On 6 December 1989, at the University of Montreal, a person who had unsuccessfully applied for a university place, motivated by hatred of women, enters the university armed with a machine gun, kills 14 women, among the victims are also men. In a suicide note, the perpetrator writes that it was women who took away his place at university.
The UWr Vice-Rector for projects and international relations, prof. Patrycja Matusz, adds:
There are many women in the world who need our support. I would like to draw attention to the fate of Iranian women who are fighting for their rights today, as well as the fate of women from Ukraine, refugee women who have had to leave their homes and those who are fighting for their country. Let us think of them not only on these sixteen days.
Professor Wiktor Żłobicki, the Rector’s representative for counteracting the effects of mobbing, emphasises:
We cannot discriminate against anyone on the basis of gender. Let’s be good to each other. Everyone is equal.
The symbolic colour orange is meant to express our solidarity – not only with women, but also with all those who become victims of verbal, psychological, physical or institutional violence, says dr Kolankowska.
Let’s put an end to the pandemic of violence against women – appeals Łukasz Prus
