American actress and activist Ashley Judd, who is recuperating from a horrific accident in the Congo rainforest, has voiced her support for Independent Media’s Don’t Look Away campaign against gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa.
In an exclusive interview at Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, Judd praised the award-winning campaign which shines a light on the epidemic of violence against women.
“I understand that there is a wonderful campaign at work at the moment call Don’t Look Away and what this means is understand(ing) that femicide is a problem in South Africa and femicide is specifically homicide that takes place against a woman or a girl simply because of the fact that she is a girl.
”The message to men is stop killing girls and women. Misogyny is real and violence against women is real,“ she said.
In 2020, Judd won a sexual harassment lawsuit against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for an incident that happened when he invited her to his room at the Peninsula Hotel in the 1990s.
Judd is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and has frequently spoken about witnessing first-hand the trauma suffered by victims of GBV in poor countries as part of her work.
Independent Media’s campaign was launched in 2016 to coincide with 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children.
In 2017, the campaign won first prize at the International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards in New York for Best Use of Video.
Since its inception, IOL has treated the campaign as a a permanent fixture, with special targeted features during Women’s Month in August and 16 Days of Activism in December.
IOL
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