Breaking The Silence to Be Performed in Front of Key Influencers and Decision-Makers at The Hague

Breaking The Silence to be performed in front of key influencers and decision-makers at The Hague -
27 - 29 April
by Katrina Syran

The next stop for our stand-out and awareness-raising play Breaking The Silence is the Hague on 27 -29 April infront of an influential audience, all of whom can make a difference.

Written by Suzan Craig and myself, and working closely alongside Liesl Gerntholtz, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Women Division, the play has been invited to perform at The Hague by Madeleine Rees, Secretary General of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, as part of 'The Women's Power to Stop War International Conference' - https://mobile.twitter.com/WILPF. Both Liesel and Madeleine have continued to provide us with their incredible support and assistance and without them Breaking The Silence wouldn't be changing lives.

Breaking The Silence features a series of monologues based on the shocking and harrowing stories from researchers at Human Rights Watch Women's Division and is being performed around the globe as part of a successful awareness-raising mission.
Research for the play was all based on the work carried out by Human Rights Watch and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and due to this the silence has been broken. Issues in the monologue include sexual violence, rape as a war crime, trafficking, child marriage, domestic violence, right to a (political) voice and right to ownership/education and free speech. Somalian supermodel and a UN spokeswoman on female genital mutilation, Waris Dirie, very kindly also let us use her words from her book 'Desert Flower' so 'Breaking The Silence' also addresses female genital mutilation.

The play, having been performed throughout the Summit, was also chosen to be performed on the last day of the 'Global Summit To End Sexual Violence In Conflict' at ExCel, London, last year in front of the US Secretary of State John Kerry, Angelina Jolie, William Hague and Brad Pitt. It was backstage at this Summit standing in the dark next to Angelia and Brad that I met Noelia Mann, the associate artistic director of Girl Be Heard, a New York based organisation which uses theatre to empower young women to become brave, confident, socially conscious leaders and explore their own challenging circumstances. In a joint collaboration we enjoyed a successful run of the play at The Soho Playhouse in New York last month working alongside Human Rights Watch. On 20th February, the World Day of Social Justice, the play was also performed at the UN -http://m.webtv.un.org/watch/breaking-the-silence-monologues-on-gender-voice-and-violence/4073126138001

The beautiful journey of Breaking The Silence has just begun and we hope the jungle telegraph will flourish so please help us and amplify your voice!