One out of every three women on this planet will be beaten or raped in her lifetime (UN statistics)

...when we give in the world what we want the most, we heal the broken part inside each of us. And I feel in the last 8 years, that this journey, this miraculous Vagina Journey, has taught me this really simple thing -- which is, that happiness exists in action, it exists in telling the truth and saying what your truth is, and it exists in giving away what you want the most. And I feel that knowledge and that journey has been an extraordinary priviledge...

Eve Ensler interviewed over 200 women about their vaginas. She put down all that information in Monologues and then different of these monologues were selected by different people in the world to set up shows. In the audiovisual below, Eve Ensler starts with the classical beginning of all of these shows, and then tells us the story of why she started interviewing women and what it all led to. and then tells us the story of how all of this started and what it has evolved into.

Watch the audiovisual * Below, you can find the audio version too.

We need to listen to women, as a species, because for centuries we haven't. We need to listen and to take into account what they say, to use it, as they do, to improve our societies, to overcome injustice and violence in the world. Listening to women, a traditionally oppressed group, teaches us that acknowledging a problem doesn't lead you to revenge, to killing the oppressor. Women are starting to ask to be respected as human beings, and they're not asking for men to be sentenced to death for the crimes they have committed against them. This is a completely new way of approaching social change - a constructive approach to making our societies more civilized.

More here...
Listening Comprehension exercises by TP on the Vagina Monologues (includes audio)
More listening practice: YouTube videos with different performances of the Vagina Monologues in the world
Some reading practice: The scripts of some of the monologues and the thread we started in our little forum

More info...
Eve Ensler criticizes the Bush administration and its aggressive foreign policies

The Vagina Monologues (wikipedia)
V-Day
Violence Against Women Statistics - some of the best resources