Event celebrates women internationally

With spring break fast approaching, many would agree that slugging it out this far into the semester calls for celebration.

The Center for Women and Gender and the Perspectives Club at Utah State University invite students to celebrate in a big way.

To commemorate International Women’s Day, which falls on March 8 this year, Global Village Gifts is housing an International Women’s Night Out on Friday. The event starts at 6 p.m. and general admittance is free, said the Center for Women and Gender’s event coordinator Stephanie Bagnell.

The theme of the event is the celebration and empowerment of women, paired with awareness and altruism.

“We decided to make it into a big celebration where we’re actually helping women internationally,” said Stephane Bagnell, the event coordinator for the Center for Women and Gender at USU.

International Women’s Night Out will cover the unique perspectives and challenges that come with being a woman in another country and culture. Students from USU’s Global Engagement are going to be present, Bagnell said, donning the traditional dress of their home countries.

There will also be henna tattooing, a service from which the procedes will directly benefit charities. Bagnell stated that sponsors, such as USU Dining Services and Cafe Ibis, will provide food and drinks for the event.

The experience will include presentations and information, spreading awareness as well as accepting donations for impoverished women who are suffering in poor conditions. Many charities that benefit and support such issues will be present, Bagnell said.

“It’s to celebrate women and where they’ve come in the world and how far we still have to go,” she said.

Global Village Gifts, which is the only Fair-Trade-certified store in Utah, is hosting the event. The store sells the wares of impoverished women in third world countries, and most of the proceeds go directly to better the lives of these women.

CAPSA, a nonprofit organization in Logan that stands for Citizens Against Physical and Sexual Abuse, will be present at the event as well. CAPSA volunteers will deck out the Global Village Gifts house in purple lights.

According to Bagnell, guests are encouraged to wear purple, the women’s suffrage color. These guests will receive special discounts on services.

Sew N Sews, another organization in Logan that will be present, crafts sanitary napkins for women in third world countries who would otherwise have no access to them.

These organizations will be there to inform guests about the common struggles of impoverished women, as well as to accept donations.

“International Women’s Night Out is about learning and informing people about different nationalities, women around the world and what they go through,” said Lily Palmer, a member of the presidency of the USU Perspectives Club and a freshman in elementary education.

Members of the recently-formed Perspectives Club are no strangers to planning events like this one. Palmer said Perspectives helped with the Monument Quilt at Sundance. This project chronicles in red fabric the stories of rape survivors.

The club, which concerns itself with gender equality, also provides screenings of documentaries pertaining to women’s issues. One film to be screened, according to Palmer, is ”It’s a Girl.”

As accounted by the film’s website, this documentary film explores the concept of “gendercide.” Filmed in India and China, it reveals the issue of girls being killed and abandoned because of gender. This film will be screened on campus on April 25, Palmer said.

“The Hunting Ground” is a Sundance Film documenting gendered sexual violence on college campuses. Palmer said that Utah State will be the first college campus to screen this film. The screen date is tentatively set for April, although an exact date has yet to be determined.

Brittany Shields, a junior in clinical psychology, founded Perspectives with Palmer. Shields, among others, said she welcomes student participation from those who value feminism and women’s issues.

“There isn’t a lot on campus for gender equality. I think we bring that to campus,” she said. “It would be great if more people wanted to get involved.”

— whitney.howard@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @omgwhitshutup