Ssssh... Trigger Warning

[sheshe2]

13. Thank you Spitfire.

I love Patrick Stewart's voice.

At the launch event, Stewart pounded the podium in front of him nine times to symbolize the shocking statistic that "every nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten in the United States" (another alarming statistic: according to the UN, globally at least one in three women and girls is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime.) For Stewart the cause is intensely personal, since as he talks about openly in the following interview, he experienced the horror of domestic violence firsthand when as a small child he witnessed his father repeatedly physically abusing his mother. Stewart said he only recently felt ready to talk publicly about his experience - but now feels it is important that he do so, since, as he said, "domestic violence is protected by silence." Stewart has been a longtime, committed advocate on this issue, working on behalf of the organization Refuge, which provides a range of services to abused women and children in the UK, as well as on behalf of Amnesty International's Violence Against Women Campaign. Stewart passionately believes that violence against women is not a women's issue, but "humanity's issue". With recent stories of extreme acts of violence in the news, such as the horrific gang rape of the student on a bus in Delhi, India (a Swiss tourist was also gang raped there this past weekend) and the high profile case of the rape of a 16 year-old girl by football players in Steubenville, Ohio, the problem of violence against women is very much in public consciousness - now, says Stewart, for real change to happen, men must be a part of the solution.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-schnall/exclusive-interview-with-_11_b_2900041.html