Int'l Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women

       In 1999, the UN General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime - with the abuser usually someone known to her.
     Women's activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. The date commemorates the brutal assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, in 1960 on orders of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

    Governments, international organizations and NGOs are invited to organize activities on the day to raise public awareness of the problem. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women also launches the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, which runs through 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Vandals Attack Canadian Salon Over Battered-Woman Ad

       The owners of a hair salon in Canada have received death threats following an ad campaign featuring battered women, with a promise of making them look good again.
      The Daily Mail reports that Fluid Hair in Edmonton has been vandalized, as people are outraged that it would dare to use domestic violence to advertise its services.
Graffiti was found Thursday morning (Aug 25th  )on the back entrance of the Fluid hair salon. Lavender paint was splashed across the door. A message stenciled on paper and pasted to two back windows read, "This is art that is wrongly named violence, that was violence that was wrongly named art." The two sections were connected by a hot-pink arrow.
       The salon came under fire this week over an ad from February depicting a woman, elegantly dressed, sitting on a couch with a black eye. A man stands behind her holding a necklace. The ad's slogan reads, "Look good in all you do."