April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. CARDV invites you to join us in raising awareness of this widespread crime. One way to get involved is by wearing jeans on April 14th, Denim Day. Denim Day is an international event protesting an outrageous decision made by the Italian Supreme Court in 1999.

A court in Potenza, Italy convicted a 45-year-old driving instructor of raping an 18-year-old student. The Italian Supreme Court reversed the rape conviction, however, because the young woman was wearing jeans at the time of the attack. The Court’s reprehensible ruling stated: “it is impossible to remove a pair of jeans without the collaboration of the person wearing them;” the young woman must have consented.*

In addition to Denim Day, there is a full schedule of events for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Please join us for a free viewing of the documentary Very Young Girls, a gripping documentary about sex trafficking in America.

CARDV will be hosting a viewing April 13th at Darkside Cinema in Corvallis and April 20th at Venetian Theater in Albany. Due to the content of the film, those under the age of 17 will not be admitted unless accompanied by a guardian.

* World: Europe women in jeans ‘cannot be raped’. BBC News 11 Feb. 1999, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/277263.stm