Pen-Elayne on the Web

V-Day in Juarez

For some women yesterday, V stood for Valentine; for others, V stood for Violence and efforts to combat it. Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes conceived of this card (click on the last thumbnail on the page to enlarge it) two years ago - as she explained to Daryl Cagle, "the card represents (clockwise): Bride burnings (if I recall correctly, in India), Domestic violence in the US, or western world, the birth rate in Africa, and Islamic fundamentalism (specifically the Taliban, if you'll notice the 2001 date in the cartoon)." A few years earlier, Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler founded V-Day, a non-profit corporation which "distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls." And yesterday, V-Day celeb supporters joined lots of others out in force in Juarez, marching for justice on behalf of the hundreds of women killed there in the past decade.