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span class="inline inline-left">Active: One Billion Rising is planning events in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day to support women’s rights in the country. Courtesy of One Billion Rising It’s coming. The 14th day of February is just around the corner; a day variously commemorated for two millennia.

At first it was called Saint Valentine’s Day, in reverence for the compassion and social concern of a Christian cleric who, legend has it, defied pagan Roman law by performing marriage rituals. Then its name was shortened to Valentine’s Day as it became more associated with romantic love through the poetry of British poet Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century.

The name was then co-opted and shortened 14 years ago by gender activists to V-Day, in reference to the biologically specific word frowned upon in many cultures as taboo in polite conversation.

Now, the V in Valentine is taking on another significance as women and men around the world are joining together to voice their concern about violence against women as Feb. 14 approaches.

In Indonesia, as is the case with 189 other countries around the globe, people are gearing up to take part in One Billion Rising, an event to increase awareness of the problem.

According to veteran social activism event organizer Dhyta Caturani of Jakarta, people from all over Greater Jakarta are practicing for a “flash mob dance at Monas [National Monument] Park from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the 14th of February”.

“I heard about the global effort for One Billion Rising through the Internet at www.onebillionrising.org. So I decided, what with the recent outcry over a judge’s sexist comments during a House of Representatives’ judicial committee meeting and reactions in the social and mass media to cases of rape in Indonesia over the past couple of years, that this event would be a perfect opportunity to put violence against women in the spotlight,” she said.

The One Billion Rising movement is inviting women and the people who love them all around the globe to walk out of their homes, schools, and jobs to dance in support of bringing an end to violence against women worldwide for a few precious moments on Feb. 14.

In Indonesia, flash mob dance events are being organized in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Denpasar. Preparations include practice sessions for learning the moves for the dances and pre-event activities, such as the screening of films and discussions on the impact of violence against women.

“We also have been screening short films on violence against women and women’s rights in the run up to One Billion Rising day, and we will be documenting this event with video footage. There is a whole team of us, including men, working toward that,” Kiki Febriyanti, one of the Jakarta event organizers, said.

Further information can be found at 1 Billion Rising ID@OBR_Indonesia on Twitter.

“The idea for ‘One Billion Rising’ is based on the statistic that as many as one in three women, or one billion women, will be raped, beaten or face violence of some sort in their lifetime,” Dhyta said.

In terms of numbers, that is approximately 14 percent of the world population of 7 billion. In Indonesia, according to the National Commission on Violence against Women, the number of reported cases of rape, domestic violence and other forms of brutality against women reached 119,107 in 2012.

“So many of the people, both women and men, coming to our flash mob dance practices have expressed their disgust at this violence against women. Some of the women have experienced this violence firsthand, while other of the women and the men participating have relatives or others close to them who have fallen victim. Other people showing interest in the event are simply concerned that this could happen to them or someone they love,” Dhyta explained.

“The general consensus is ‘Enough is enough. We have to stop it’,” she added.

Singer-songwriter Kartika Jahja expressed this sentiment in a blog shared on Twitter on Feb. 1, in which she invited the public to join her in supporting the Feb. 14 dancing .

“Why are we women so conscious of the need to be on the alert when we are walking alone at night, or when we get into public transit vehicles, or go through isolated areas, or find ourselves in a place where we are the only woman around? You know the answer. It is because we are women. And experience has taught us that the world is a threatening place for us,” she wrote.

“To participate in One Billion Rising, it is enough to join others forming a group or groups in your city. If nobody is doing this where you are yet, you can start up a dance group yourself. One Billion Rising is not about any given organization, it belongs to each and every individual who takes part, whoever they might be,” Kartika wrote. So, as legendary choreographer Martha Graham once said, “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.”