I often get asked, “Why are you doing this work?” My own personal experiences with sexual violence, as a child, and as an adult, the misogyny inherent in our everyday lives, and the sexual harassment at the workplace that I have experienced, made me feel very strongly about violence against women and children.
My personal journey with the social justice movement began with a single question: Can I live in an accountable world? Where the youth are better informed to make their life choices than I was in my growing up years. I wanted the misogynist narratives that plague our culture, our society, and our collective psyche to be challenged and changed.
Over the years, my search took me into prisons, colleges, villages, communities, and corporates. I talked to writers, artists, academics, philosophers, students, leaders, judges, prisoners, teachers, professionals, students, wives, mothers and daughters, asking them the same question, “What makes us say ‘Yes’ when we want to say ‘No’? What keeps us bound to violent structures?”
It took me four decades and a lot of hard work to understand that what happened to that little girl inside me was not my choice. It took me fifty years to understand, and then to forgive myself. It took twenty years of studying and working and talking to numerous survivors to realize that I was not alone. I also realized experience with sexual violence does not make me an expert to stop it. So I educated myself and worked on several projects that taught me ways to stop it.
Through Social Art, my vision is to mainstream these difficult conversations, build capacities and eventually, build safe spaces and communities for women, children and marginalised groups. I strongly believe that the dream of #ENDViolence can become a reality with collective action and participation.