March 31, 2008

'Bandana Project' at LCC part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month

The center is partnering with Purdue Communities Against Rape and Violence (CARe), the Latino Faculty/Staff Association (LaFASA) and the Southern Poverty Law Center for the event, which is free and open to the public.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The bandana project is a nationwide effort to heighten awareness about sexual harassment and sexual assault against immigrant women, particularly against women farmworkers, says Kimber Nicoletti, president of LaFASA and CARe minority outreach director at Purdue.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center asked for national partners and they asked us to do it on April 3, which is the national day of action for Sexual Assault Awareness Month," Nicoletti says. "We're asking people to come in and decorate and draw on the bandanas.

The bandanas will be displayed in LCC throughout April. Then they go back to the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of a permanent exhibit that will tour the nation."

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that 90 percent of farmworker women say that sexual harassment is a major problem. The women are forced to use their clothes, including bandanas, to cover their bodies while they are working in an attempt to ward off unwanted sexual attention, the center says.

The center chose white bandanas as a symbol of the sexual exploitation of farmworker women. The bandanas will be decorated to honor the women who have been assaulted and have named their attackers, the center says.

Writer: Greg McClure, (765) 494-9394, gmcclure@purdue.edu

Sources: Maricela Alvarado, (765) 494-2530, alvaradm@purdue.edu

Kimber Nicoletti, (765) 494-6871, knicolet@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page