Mission Statement
Survivors supports those who experience domestic violence or sexual assault and strives to create a world in which violence against women and children is unthinkable.

From: Harriett Jameson [mailto:harriettj@...]
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 11:42 AM
To: terri@...
Subject: Denim Day Clarification

Italy, 1992

An 18-year old girl is picked up by her married 45-year old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully rapes her. Threatened with death if she tells anyone, he makes her drive the car home. Later that night she tells her parents, and they help and support her to press charges. The perpetrator gets arrested and is prosecuted. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.

He appeals the sentence. The case makes it’s all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. Within a matter of days the case against the driving instructor is overturned, dismissed, and the perpetrator released. In a statement by the Chief Judge, he argued, “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”

Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same, which in turn spread to Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, and Denim Day was born.

 I apologize  for any confusion I might have caused, and I thank the savvy person who caught my mistake and let me know about it.

 Thanks, 

Harriett