Calling citizens, persons, who are ready to step in, to end gender based violence. Calling you to be an Action Shero / Action Theyro, Action Hero. Volunteer or Intern here
Campus of Belonging: Where every student, across gender and identities, feels seen and heard. Is your campus safe? Just because it feels safe for you, does it feel safe for everybody else?
Campus of Belonging emerged through our ongoing research, Campus Climates towards the I Never Ask For It Mission.
Watch out for new Campus of Belonging internships in 2024-2025.
Between 2015 -2019 : Meet To Sleep has been built by the following allies: Akanksha Seva Sadan, Muzzafarpur. Anandi, Godhra,Devgadh Baria, Vadodara, Maliya. Azad Foundation, Delhi . Breakthrough, Delhi. CAFP India, Delhi. Centre for Health and Social Justice, Delhi. Choti Si Khushi, Delhi CLAAP, Hyderabad. CREA Network.Femme Fridays, Bhopal. Gaurav Gramin Mahila Vikas Sanstha, Shorampur. Girls At Dhabas, Pakistan. Global Concerns India, Bangalore Gramonnati Sanstha, Mahoba. Hidden Pockets, Bangalore. I Will Go Out, Bangalore. Jagori, Delhi. Kashmir Women's Collective. Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanstha, Kutch Mahila Mukhti Sanstha, Hazaribag Malleshwaram Social, Bangalore. Nazariya, Sangli. NLUS, Chennai. NLUS, Jodhpur Northeast network, Nagaland. Olakh Foundation, Vadodara , One Billion Rising, South Asia. Plan India +AV Baliga Trust + CASP, Delhi. Radio Active 90.4MHz Community Radio, Bangalore. Red Brigade Foundation, Lucknow. Red Dot Foundation, Delhi, Sadbhavana Trust, Lucknow . Sahas Foundation,
Delhi, Sahyogini, Bokaro.. Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari, Himachal Pradesh. Sangat, Delhi .Sangram, Sangli . Shaheen, Hyderabad. Sneha Foundation, Mumbai.Social Hike, Bangalore . Srijan Foundation, Hazaribag, Jharkhand / Srijanatmak Manushi Sanstha, Delhi .Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. VAMP (Sex Workers against injustice), Sangli . Vidrohi Mahila Manch ( Rebellious women), Sangli. Vimochana, Bangalore. Where Are The Women, Hyderabad, Why Loiter, Mumbai. (2023) New Partners include Action Aid Association India ( Bhopal/ Indore) , Cequin, Jagori Rural Grameen , Mahila Jan Adhikar Samiti, Safetipin, Cities For Youth, One Billion Rising and Urja Trust ( Mumbai)
Towards a future where every girl, woman, non binary person lives in her body, home, city with pride and belonging. Join the mission to end victim blame. Leap into the right to be defenceless. We are done defending.
I Never Ask For It.
Your garment is your witness, memory and voice.
Walk Towards Healing #INeverAskForIt
Why do you and I
women.girls. non binary persons
in india & worlwide
remember the clothes we wore when we experienced
sexual violence?
Action Sheroes, Action Heroes, Action Theyroes are persons , like you and me, taking agency to end victim blame. Most women and girls across the world can remember what we wore when we experienced sexual violence.
Your garment bears memory. Your garment is witness. Your garment holds truth. Blank Noise and its #INeverAskForIt Mission facilitate the building of garment testimonials. The mission works to create a safe space for collective and personal memory. The burden of memory is not the survivors alone. #WalkTowardsHealing was held on March 8th, 2023. Action Sheroes , Action Theyroes, Action Heroes walked sharing the weight of memory. We walked as witnesses. We walked to end victim blame and to claim freedom from shame. This action invites you to walk in solidarity with survivors of gender based violence. Walk alone, together, carrying the garment testimonials on your shoulders. We Walk Alone, together, also remembering our experiences of sexual assault, misogyny, and gender-based discrimination. Unite to end gender-based violence.
May we never have to carry that weight
of silence, shame, blame for experiencing
sexual & gender based violence.
Bring the clothes you wore when you experienced sexual harassment, violence, threat or intimidation.
Ten thousand garments will assemble
and stand united in sites of public significance.
Join the mission. Collaborate. Unite to end victim blame.
We are committed to building our collective capacity to be listeners.
It isn’t enough to ask or ‘encourage’ survivors of violence to speak, when the capacity to listen has not been taught.
What happens when you listen? Read notes on the power of listening here. Listen is also a podcast series by the #INeverAskForIt Mission. Each episode has been recorded in group settings across sites, geographies and with communities in the form of 'Listening Circles'. An #INeverAskForIt Listening Circle brings together survivors of sexual violence, you and me, across varying degrees and identities to speak, be heard & believed. Connect to build a Listening Circle with Blank Noise
Remembering may be painful.
Remembering may allow release.
Remembering alone and together is an intention
Towards a
new purpose and feminist solidarity.
#INeverAskForIt
•••battameez - ill mannered ••• dheent - stubborn ••• ziddi - stubborn and persistent •••
“Our practice rests on the power of collaborations, with
citizens, individuals, feminist allies, campuses, community and you.”
Towards The Right To Be Defenceless: Meet To Sleep
When my 11-year old daughter was hearing the adults share, she kept whispering back to me, "what is the big deal about sleeping in a park". While she may be too young to understand this, my hope is that with movements such as these, she would continue to ask this question even as an adult woman living in India. - Action Sheroes Viji and Nia.
हमारा मकसद ?
डर से आज़ाद जीने का अधिकार
खुले आसमान तले आज़ादी की ओर I जहाँ डर भाग गया .
हम सो गए
“I have never slept in the open. I have never come this far away from my village. I felt like a free bird in the open sky. I experienced freedom/ Azaadi.”
Sakina , member, Gaurav Grameen Mahila Vikas,
built #MeetToSleep in Shorampur, Bihar. (2018)
Gramonati Mahoba Sanstha , Meet To Sleep.
Does the idea speak to you ? Make it your own. Be a Meet To Sleep Ally. Let's build this together.
_-_
Does the idea speak to you ? Make it your own. Be a Meet To Sleep Ally. Let's build this together. _-_
Action Shero Anonymous on what it means for her to build I Never Ask For It Mission, with her garment testimonial.
Listen , Episode 1, was recorded in Cubbon Park, Bangalore in December 2018.
Language : English
Listen in, to build connection and solidarity.
To know you are not alone.
There is no outsider, viewer, observer.
Listen to own the words #INeverAskForIt
Listen is an invitation to process internalised victim blame and shame. If you feel triggered at any point, step away, and come back to it when you feel ready. You might want to listen to Listen with a circle of three or six friends.
Does the #INeverAskForIt Mission speak to you personally or to the communities you work with?
Unite to end victim blame. Lets build the #INeverAskForIt Mission Together. We believe it takes all stakeholders to end victim blame and create futures where women, girls and all persons can live free from fear and defenceless.
“I feel safe when I am heard.
I feel safe when I am not judged.
I feel safe when I don’t have to justify myself, over and over and over again.
I, Action Shero, am your safe space,
as you are mine.
I Never Ask For It.”
Blank Noise builds ideas for collective action :
Identify ways to end victim blame together.
Feminist
Allies Unite
Build I Never Ask For It with your organisation/ community.
Build
Listening Circles
Connect with Blank Noise to facilitate
a Listening Circle with your community.
Co create #INeverAskForIt
Intern
Work with the #INeverAskForIt Mission
Intern to end victim blame through research / communication / community building/ designing intervention>
Action Shero / Theyro/ Hero-You
Build I Never Ask For It in an individual capacity; get in touch to contribute with
your garment & audio testimonial
“Intervene. Change the scene.
Be an Action Shero
Action Hero. Action Theyro”
“An Action Shero builds capacity for difficult conversations.
The Action Shero / Theyro / Hero
is willing to be self confrontational in walking towards their ideal feminist self.”
Walk with garments worn when you, women + persons experienced violence. Your Garment is memory. Witness. Voice. Walk towards healing. The action is being built in multiple sites/ locations/ geographies. The action will be held post pandemic.
Reporting To Remember
Reporting To Remember is an ongoing research project, documenting publicly known or erased, incidents of violence against women, girls and non binary persons through the systemic use of victim blame, shame, honour and policing.
Report victim blame where you live.
Invest in a future where Women + Girls Live Free From Fear and Defenceless.
Donate to Blank Noise
Your donation, of any amount ranging Rs.100- Rs.50,000/ , will take us a long way to end violence against women and girls. Make an online donation here. Bank transfer here *Blank Noise has 12A , 80G certificates towards tax exemption and can accept donations from Indian citizens only, and institutions in India.
Collaborate:
Meet To Sleep : Know The Allies
#MeetToSleep invites all women, girls, persons to become Action Sheroes by taking a nap anywhere under the open skies. Action Sheroes assert the right to live free from fear and defenceless. Sleep is protest.
We sleep to create new narratives for our bodies, ourselves and our public environments.
We, Meet To Sleep to fight fear , we have long been taught to carry.
Read and learn more about the organisations , collectives
and networks building Meet To Sleep. Visit here
खुले आसमान तले
आज़ादी की ओर
जहाँ डर भाग गया .
हम सो गए
Award
We are thrilled to be the recipients of The Visible Award 2019 ! Visible held a Temporary Parliament / public jury comprising 200 persons, in Paris. Each of the shortlisted projects were discussed . The award is towards the I Never Ask For It mission. The Visible Award recognises and spotlights socially engaged art practice from across the world. More here.
3 Words To A Stranger : How Are You ?
Meet To Sleep
Kamla Bhasin, champions Meet To Sleep with One Billion Rising, Delhi. (2017)
आशा है की आप सब सलामत हैं ,और इस माहौल में अपने आप को अकेला नहीं महसूस कर रहे …खासकर इन दिनों जब देश की हालात देखकर मन निराश और पीड़ित है I
निराशा से दूर हम उम्मीद की तरफ चलें I मिलकर डर, दोष और महिला हिंसा की कहानी पलटें
पार्क ,खेत, नदिया,
या समुद्र किनारे,
सहेलिओं बीच ,
एक दूसरे के सहारे
पेड़ की छाओं में
अपने इलाके की बेंच में
बादलों बीच छुपे सूरज
को बुलाएंगे
गहरी नींद सो जायेगें
हम सब मिलकर
मीट टू स्लीप बनायेगेहम अन्य
सार्वजनिक स्थानों
में एक गहरी नींद लेंगे
मीट टू स्लीप -
जहां आप,मैं,
हम सब मिलकर
जहाँ भी हों
सार्वजनिक स्थानों में
सो जाएंगे
#MeetToSleep with Sadbhavana Trust, #LucknowLeaders
Jasmeen Patheja call to action #MeetToSleep (2018)
Towards Building an Action Theyro Shero- Feminist Campus
contd.
Action Shero Campus
Build #INeverAskForIt on your campus.
Bring an end to sexual assault,
moral policing and victim blame
CAMPUS CLIMATES - ONGOING
BUILDING I NEVER ASK FOR IT ON YOUR CAMPUS: MEASURE , EXAMINE, AND SHIFT THE CAMPUS CLIMATE.
What is your Campus Climate?
Do you report harassment, bias, prejudice, and abuse on campus?
Do you notice a systemic injustice in your institution that perpetuates violence against women and non binary persons?
If you’re a student leader or any student who feels strongly about this, you are welcome.
If you’re someone who experienced harassment or threat on campus, or know someone who did, you are welcome.
If you have witnessed or felt uneasy but not found words to articulate your feelings, you are welcome.
If you believe in ending victim blame, sexual violence , threat, discrimination, you are welcome.
Connect with the Blank Noise Campus Connector programme to meet speak, build community, listen, address,
articulate, name and envision what the feminist future campus can look and feel like.
The I Never Ask For It Campus Programme / Campus Climates includes talks, workshops and I Never Ask For It garment installations in college campuses, and internships.
Ongoing research on feminist organising, resistance and hashtags across the world.
* Research was conducted by Action Shero interns. More about internship here.
CAMPUS UPRISING : Spotlighting Victim Blame on Campus across India and beyond.
Campus Uprising is a participatory research and community building project, documenting student led protests in response to rape culture, patriarchy, victim blame on campus. Join the Campus Uprising research and community building team by signing up to intern here and to read more about the ongoing project, visit here.
Unite To Eradicate Victim Blame.
Co Create #INeverAskForIt .
#INeverAskForIt TED Talks Nayi Soch , hosted by Shahrukh Khan, Star Plus (2017) View talk here
I Never Ask For It (2005 - ongoing).
#INeverAskForIt . #MeToo testimonies linked here
Connect to address and arrest victim blame and sexual harassment at the workplace.
e: actionshero@blanknoise.org
Campus Climates
The Global Feminist Hashtag Research Project
Akeli Awaara Azaad अकेली आवारा आज़ाद
ON HER OWN, UNAPOLOGETIC, FREE .
Hum Sab Akele. Hum Sab Ek Saath
हम सब अकेले I हम सब एक साथ I
Walk Alone. Together.
What do the three words, Akeli , Awaara , Azaad mean to you ?
Marching towards our fullest potential : Over a thousand Action Sheroes/ Action Theyroes between ages 2 to 87, across 88 towns, cities, places, regions and 9 countries unite in celebrating our #AkeliAwaaraAzaad selves. Akeli-Awaara-Azaads claim the right to live free from fear, warnings and blame. Get yourself an #AkeliAwaaraAzaad Tee.
Follow @blanknoiseactionheroes on instagram #AkeliAwaaraAzaad
Roar Like An Action Shero. Today. Everyday.
Blank Noise is a community ‘Action Sheroes, Theyroes, Heroes, ie citizens /persons taking agency to end sexual / gender based violence.
#TEDTalksIndiaNayiSoch, TED Talks in collaboration with Star Plus, hosted by Shahrukh Khan. (2017)
Photo credit: Amit Madheshiya. View TED Talk here
Something you don’t leave home without?
bring it to the Museum Of Street Weapons Of Defence
Moments Of A Long Pause is a two channel video, interviewing women and men across the streets of Delhi, Agra, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Kolkata, on street harassment. The piece was commissioned by Bronx Museum Of Art towards the show, Street Art, Street Life (2008).
Hot News/ Taaza Samachar , video performance, created in 2003, in response to the everyday consumption and denial of news reports on rape. The script is based on news reports from the same year.
