As part of its awareness activities for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence (CARDV) is inviting the community to help raise awareness about sexual violence by wearing jeans on April 27th—Denim Day.
Denim Day is an international event protesting an outrageous decision made by the Italian Supreme Court in 1999.
In 1992, an 18 year old girl was raped during a driving lesson by her instructor on the side of a remote road. That evening, the girl reported what happened to her parents and they took the perpetrator to court where he was prosecuted and sent to prison. The perpetrator later successfully appealed his rape conviction. The appeals judge stated that because the girl was wearing tight jeans the perpetrator would not have been able to remove them without her assistance, and therefore the act must have been consensual.** Within the same day as this verdict, women in the Italian Parliament started to protest by wearing their jeans to work.
How to participate in Denim Day 2012:
- Wear jeans and teal ribbons in acknowledgment of Sexual Assault Awareness Month
- Encourage your employer or employees to wear their jeans on Friday, April 27.
* Visit http://cardvservices.org to download a free Denim Day 2012 posters and bookmarks.
For more information on how you can promote Denim Day, please contact CARDV at: 541-758-0219.
** World: Europe women in jeans ‘cannot be raped’. BBC News 11 Feb. 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/277263.stm
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