Refuse to Stay Silent

“We were very satisfied with the quantity and, above all, with the quality of the works received. Our activity fulfils the objective of showing the power of visual communication for the synthesis, reflection, and criticism of Women's issues internationally. Last, but not least, we have an opportunity to show the work of 58 selected cartoonists in a catalogue. They all have different views, but together they shine a light on violence against women worldwide. We thank all cartoonists for supporting us and being part of our competition,” says out Fadi Abou Hassan, coordinator and organizer of the competition at the Cartoon Home Network International - CHNI.

30 selected works can be seen as an outdoor exhibition 24/7 on the Norwegian National Cartoonist Gallery from 26. November and a selection of 58 selected works will be seen in the catalogue, which will be on sale at the gallery.

The project is supported by Fritt Ord. 

Violence against women and girls has reached a devastating scale around the globe. A United Nations report recently revealed that one in every three women, approximately 243 million worldwide, were abused by an intimate partner in the years 2020-2021. 

The already staggering numbers are not to be taken at face value, as a large proportion of cases go unreported. The frequent impunity of perpetrators, stigma towards the victims, and self-inflicted societal shame lead many women and girls to be silent. Abuse, traditionally represented as merely physical, manifests itself in many forms: battery, psychological abuse, marital rape, femicide, rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, street harassment, stalking, cyber-harassment, human trafficking (slavery and sexual exploitation), female genital mutilation, child marriage and more…

As countries went into lockdown to stop the spread of the virus, violence against women intensified, especially domestic violence, and the challenges of reporting it grew. Some countries saw calls for help rise significantly, with phone calls to helplines increasing five-fold. Yet, the number of regular reports fell in others, as access to support via channels became more limited. In a perverse cycle, a lot of women found themselves more isolated as the risk of violence in intimate relationships increased, frequently only in contact with their own abusers for long periods of time, unable to ask for help.

We know the cartoons speak a universal language. Sometimes the text needs to be translated, but that is unnecessary for most cartoons. You can cry, laugh or get excited about them at first glance, and sometimes readers may have to think a little. cartoonists want you to laugh, cry or get mad about the sad, crazy, and cruel things on our planet, to raise awareness about what is happening. For that, our purpose in this contest is to create the main theme combining cartoonists from the whole world on tailored subjects about women's rights and stop violence against them worldwide and protect them because it's a global social crisis. And it has devastating consequences for the societies of the entire world.

We are shouting about the perpetuation of violence against women worldwide: STOP