KATHMANDU: December 1 is known the world over as World AIDS Day, however it is also celebrated as V-Day: Until violence stops, which is a global movement to stop violence against women and children.

V-Day is being celebrated here for the first with the Vagina Monologues being staged at the Academy hall on the initiative of Help/Nepal.

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which premiered in 1996. It is made up of a varying number of monologues. Every monologue somehow relates to the vagina, be it through sex, love, rape, menstruation, mutilation, birth, orgasm, the variety of names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the female body.

Every year a new monologue is added to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world. In 2003, for example, a skit was made concerning the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Says Arabinda Subedi of Help/Nepal, “Rehearsals are on, and we have received support from UN and other sources.”

Artistes and public personalities like Malvika Subba, Kala Subba, Mona Sherpa, Ila Sharma, Bhumika Thapa among others are involved in the project.

The Monologues, 17 in number, will be delivered in Nepali, with the words being shown on a projector in English for the non-Nepali understanding audience.

Said a voluteer for the V-Day project, “Chhau pratha is still practised in many parts of our country though we know it shouldn’t be. We need to start a dialogue and Vagina Monologues is one of the best ways to do it.”