Hijacking Valentine's Day for Womens' rights

The Women's Memorial March came about as a response to the increasing number of missing or murdered women. A particularly brutal murder of a women happened in Vancouver, Canada which prompted women to action. An annual march on Valentine's Day was started to commemorate those women and to bring about compassion in the community as well as providing awareness on a national and global scale.

Decades later, the march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women, as well as raising awareness regarding the welfare of women today.

Gender inequality is an important issue that affects women all across the globe. Millions of women in developing countries are facing gender inequality which is in turn reducing them to poverty.

Six out of ten of world's poorest people are women and girls, less than 16 percent of the world's parliamentarians are women, and two thirds of all children who are not in education are girls [http://www.womankind.org.uk/statistics.html]

Many other young girls will leave school early, marry too young, and miss the chance to reach her full potential. A survey in India found that girls who married before age 18 were twice as likely to report being beaten, slapped, or threatened by their husbands as were girls who married later (International Center for Research on Women, Development Initiative on Supporting Healthy Adolescents [2005], analysis of quantitative baseline survey data collected in select sites in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, India [survey conducted in 2004].) The subject of gender inequality contributes to the endless cycle of poverty and we need  to do something about it!

The Craftivist Collective has been hijacking Valentine's Day for the past 3 years. The crafty activist group aims to spread some global, neighbourly love by hiding alternative Valentine's Day cards around the public area; cashpoints, supermarket ailes, park benches..the possibilities are endless, which is what makes it so much fun!


Photo by Craftivist-Collective

We at Leeds ActiveARTS are proposing to hijack Valentine's Day this year by leaving alternative Valentine's Day cards and handmade gifts to the unsuspecting public of Leeds. We want to raise awareness of Womens' issues and equality rights.

ALTERNATIVE VALENTINE'S DAY WORKSHOP IN LEEDS
Want to get involved? We are holding an Alternative Valentine's Day workshop at REMADE in Leeds Hyde Park, at 6.00PM on MONDAY 31ST JANUARY. Come along to make cards, letters and heart shaped keyrings! Then help us deliver them across Leeds!