Former victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence will be among a group of women performing in a series of Vagina Monologues presentations around the nation next month to raise awareness of violence against women.
The play will be performed by members of the Garden of Hope Foundation’s Playback Theatre troupe, which is comprised of former sexual victims of abuse and domestic violence, as well as women concerned about gender issues, the foundation said.
The foundation established the troupe in 2008 to promote gender equality and help members share their stories with other abuse victims and the public through theater.
It is the ninth year that the group is staging the Vagina Monologues, which was written by US playwright Eve Ensler and relates stories about sex, love, rape and other issues affecting women, said an official with the foundation surnamed Lin (林).
“This year’s presentations are special because they will be performed mainly by the troupe instead of by the foundation’s social workers and other employees,” she said.
One of the performers, nicknamed Shu-chen (淑真), said she wants to share her experience of domestic violence with other abused women.
Drama therapy has helped her heal her own wounds and reach others who are hurting, she said, adding that the “scabs covering her wounds come off a little more” every time she tells her story.
The foundation said it hopes the performances will encourage more female victims of sexual abuse and discrimination to seek help.
Next month’s performances will include a monologue about an elderly woman who had never enjoyed sex, and one about the vagina’s rage over the discomfort caused by tampons, thongs and the instruments used at obstetrics and gynecology clinics.
The performances are being staged parallel to the global V-Day movement to end violence against women. The movement, initiated in 1998 by Ensler, raises funds from performances of her play to help female victims of sexual abuse and other forms of violence.
The performances are scheduled for June 1 and June 2 in New Taipei City (新北市); June 8 and June 9 in Greater Tainan; and June 15 and June 16 in Greater Taichung.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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