Zonta Club of Greater Dhaka to celebrate 16 Days of Activism campaign from 25 Nov

The Zonta Club of Greater Dhaka has chalked out plans to celebrate 16 Days of Activism campaign from November 25 to December 10 with a goal to globally develop advocacy actions with a focus on preventing violence, protecting victims and prosecuting perpetrators.

During the 16 Days of Activism, the intention is to take local, national and international actions to influence the making and implementation of laws, as well as changing gender-based attitudes and behaviours to end violence against women, the club said in a press release.

News agency United News of Bangladesh (UNB) is the media partner of the events.

 "'Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women' campaign is a great opportunity to make Zontians around the world commit to a common goal to end gender-based violence," it said.

The Zonta Club of Greater Dhaka will host three webinars and a TV talk show and radio programme from Wednesday to celebrate the campaign.

The webinars include Radio Talk Show with Irene Rabbani, Tootli Rahman and Aniza Chowdhury on stopping child marriage on November 26.

In the first webinar at 6pm on November 27, Prof Dr Nashid Kamal and Barrister Rizwana Choudhury will be sharing stories of personal victimisation and case studies.

President of Zonta Club of Greater Dhaka, Ztn Dr Simeen M Akhtar, will be present at the webinar which will be moderated by Advocacy Chairperson, Ztn Tootli Rahman.

The second webinar, scheduled for 6pm on November 30, will be held in partnership with ULAB. The panelists will be Vice-Chancellor of ULAB Imran Rahman and industrialist and philanthropist Akhter Matin Choudhury. It will be moderated by Tootli Rahman. Dr Simeen Akhtar will also be present.

A TV talk show will be held on December 5 on Channel 71 on gender equality. It will be participated by Ztn Dr Zareen Delawar with a guest speaker.

The third webinar "strokes against violence" in partnership with Cosmos Gallery will take place at 8pm on December 9. It will showcase three prominent artists. Their artworks will speak for them, and viewers will get an insight into how art can be used as a powerful tool for the expression of violence suffered by so many.

Along with the three artists, the President and the Advocacy Chair, Tootli Rahman, will also be present.

The campaign was launched in 2012 to raise awareness of Zonta's efforts to end violence against girls and women.

In 2014, the campaign began to move from raising awareness of the different forms of gender-based violence to more impact-oriented advocacy actions.

 In 2015, Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign raised awareness worldwide to this first legally binding instrument to fight violence against women (VAW) and domestic violence.

In 2017, Zonta clubs addressed human trafficking as one of the most widespread human rights violations.

Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign has been focused on child marriage. The 2020 campaign cycle encourages Zonta clubs and individual members to engage with their communities with new ideas for a wide variety of actions, the press release said.

President Dr Simeen said, "We're proud to be Zontians and hope that our selfless commitment will make some difference in the lives of women who can't speak for themselves."

She said during these 16 days of Activism they concentrate and work towards increasing awareness among the community through different activities.

"During the COVID times as we're physically challenged, we aim to compensate by taking advantage of technology as a tool to reach out to everyone nationally and internationally. We've, therefore, organised virtual activities partnering with respected intellectuals from the community to help us spread the message of 'Say No' to 'Violence Against Women'," she said.

Through activities during this activism campaign, Zonta Club of Greater Dhaka gets a chance to focus on and create motivation and inspiration through programmes where educationists and activists all raise their voices to fight for equality and fairness for these women., the press release added.