According to http://endabuse.org, there are 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend per year; three million women are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend each year; and as many as 324,000 women experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancies every year.
The Clothesline Project, established in 1990 in Massachusetts to raise awareness about women's domestic violence, was inspired by the traveling Vietnam wall and the Women's Agenda group that started its own traveling memorial.
The Clothesline Project is a display of shirts with messages on them, illustrating women's anti-violence messages. These shirts are made by women who are survivors of abuse or women who know someone who was physically abused. Messages such as "Stop," as well as drawings will be put on the shirts and displayed on Fletcher Lawn at ASU West in mid-March.
ASU will be taking shirt donations in Room 320, the Office of Diversity and Social Justice. The project and events will extend through the end of March with the hope that these activities will spread awareness of violence against women.
Ann Pham, the project director, said, "I got involved in Ann Arbor, Mich. while in college. I was a women's advocate for three years, providing advocacy and support at the domestic violence women's shelter."
Pham said she is passionate about the project and wants to show its purpose - to break the silence and end the violence soon.
Toddy Bowden, the committee co-chair of the project, said, "The purpose of the project is to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women, to celebrate a woman's strength to survive and to provide another avenue for breaking the silence that often surrounds violence against women."
The last shirt-making session will be held Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. at the Las Casas Community Center at the West campus.
Men are able to come and visit the project and place handprints on a community fabric. The men's pledge is to show that they raise their hand against violence.
There will be a discussion for men focusing on the roles they play in raising awareness about domestic violence on March 29 in University Center Building 265.
Pham said she hopes the project portrays this message: "Violence against women is a widespread problem that nobody is willing to talk about; everyone knows someone who has experienced it, but still the silence continues. This campaign is to provide the community with support to 'break the silence' around violence against women."
Reach the reporter at: cristina.boccio@asu.edu.
