Ashley Judd: Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence

behalf of social justice. She's a bold advocate for young people and for the vulnerable, and she has work to stem the global tide of violence against women. I'm a land forevere and this is Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear. We're bringing you one hundred of the world's most inspiring and history making women you need to hear. I sat down with Ashley Judd for a conversation as part of the podcast Seeking Peace, produced by the Georgetown Institute for Women,

Peace and Security. Let's listen and learn why Ashley Judd is one of Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear. I know that you have literally traveled the world, meeting with many women and girls, some of whom have been victims of sexual violence and human trafficking. Early in two thousand and two, you made your first humanitarian trip to Southeast Asia. I wonder what happened there? Did it? Did it have any particular impact in setting your course going forward? It did?

It was. It was both shattering and profoundly motivating. And I really went Milan because I simply was invited. And I was in this unique and strange position of being a well known person in in America and in some parts of the world, and an NGO called Population Services International, which has grassroots health programs and about seventy countries around the world, had reached out to me and asked if I would consider serving as an ambassador, representing in particular

their HIV AIDS prevention programs. And at the time, I was one of one of, if not the highest paid female actors in the history of Hollywood, and that was something of which I wasn't even cognizant. I had become a working star in such a short amount of time, with my first movie, Ruby in Paradise, winning the Sundance Film Festival. That being in the and that acting world was just as abnormal as it can be. It was

just my normal. But I wasn't particularly happy, and I wasn't fulfilled in some significant ways, and I didn't know what was wrong, but I was just kind of sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I knew

that there was more. And I had almost joined the Peace Corps when I was twenty two years old, and I went to the different jungle, you know, Hollywood instead, And so this letter from from Population Services International reaching out to me came at a time when I had reached the up with which I could no longer put in the acting career. And I didn't know if it was a feminist agency. And I wrote them back this tristis on my beliefs in gender and sexual equality, and

they said, yes, we're a feminist agency. They kind of sort of, I think, laughed a little bit at how idealistic and earnest I was. And it was a great match. And they said, okay, well your first trip is to the you know, brothels and pom pen and to the uh International HIV AIDS Conference in Bangkok. And they put so much trust in me, and I took that responsibility

very very seriously. So my very first day was in this in this brothel, and I was actually being I was more being held by this transgender sex slave than

I was holding her. And she was just weeping and telling me her whole story, and I thought, you know, my God, all I can do is bear witness to this reality and then do my my damn level best to share these stories on a global level, as well as details about grassroots solutions that can be taken to scale that help people and change norms and save lives.

You know hearing you, and I know personally you have been to so many conflict affected areas UM, whether in Rwando or South Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo. You've been to Ukraine where the war still goes on in the East. I wonder you meet with the women. You understand what they're going through in their lives, the difficulties, what it's done to them. But have you also seen the impact UM that this violence has on the stability

of communities and countries. Absolutely, sustainable peace really does begin with a woman's bodily integrity and sexual autonomy, her ability to be intact, to be whole, not to be violated, her ability to regulate her fertility so she can choose if and when in how many children to have, her ability to access essential sustenance and uh, you know, to be able to walk to get firewood, to go to lasuance and get her water, to be able to go

to mills and agricultural fields without being raped, and then to take products tomorrow get And you know, sexual violence and conflict is used to humiliate and control ethnic groups

and communities. And we also have to link it to some really big state factors like failed states, and in particular in DRC, the conflict mineral mining that is so tremendously horrible in the East and when you know, war and instability is profitable for a few, and those profiteers are directly linked to the daily mass atrocities that girls and women and some boys and men endure. Yes, and maybe you can talk a little bit more about what

this hunt, if you will. For minerals, we know that the DRC is rich in minerals, and particularly culton, which is used in cell phones and other electronics, has led to tremendous sexual violence, uh towards women in the region. And this conflict has gone on literally for years and years. Uh, there's no sign that it's ending anytime soon. M have you seen solutions for justice that those who are perpetrating

these crimes are paying for them in some way? The situation is both worsening and there are elements and degrees of hope. So in in DRC, while there have been measures implemented to reduce state violence towards vulnerable people, in two thousand eighteen of the rapes committed against girls and women by police were of girls and women who were in custody, So you've got improvements. Yet you still have state actors and armed militia perpetrating the violence them selves.

And there have been some prominent cases of prosecution, but the impunity is still largely there for both the you know, soldier on the or the armed militia person on the grassroots level as well as on the national level. So there's a couple of steps forward and a couple of

steps back. And a lot of the hope I see is through safe spaces for girls and women operated by agencies like u n f PA, the United Nations Agency for Sexual and Reproductive Health, where girls and women can come and they can participate in a craft and a trade so they can generate some incomes through something that they make, and if they're able to have some income, they can buy firewood instead of having to go look for the firewood. But the psychocial programs are really what

is so tremendous. There's a lot of trauma help and trauma work and trauma resolution that happens in those spaces where women can have strong female to female alliances and support each other. And there, you know, people get to tell their stories as well as sing and dance and find that resilience and that joy that is so improbable

yet really does transform women's hearts and souls. I'm just thinking about this blind woman with whom I was visiting in South Sudan, and she was quite elderly, and she was asking me for some sandals and a blanket, and those were not things that I had to give to her. And I was just wrecked over the way she was sharing with me, and I started to cry, and she said, oh, my granddaughter, I can tell that you are crying. Don't

worry about the sandals and the blanket. You've given me your heart, which is the best thing you could have given me. And those are the kinds of things that can happen in these safe spaces where girls and women can come together. Now that that is so real, and I just by your recounting it, I can only appreciate how much impact it had on you. Senecas one hunter women to hear, we'll be back after this short break. Why do you find it personally so important to advocate

in this way? I was a vulnerable kid, so I think that it's very much embedded in my personal story. My parents loved and adored me, and my family didn't work particularly well and everyone was very distracted and I wasn't cared for in the way that I should have been. Unfortunately, because of my own recovery and my parents beautiful humility and accountability, we are getting a massive redo. You know, my mom and I have a really tender and sweet relationship.

My dad, I can't even repeat the things that he says to me because he's he's just the proudest dad in America, let's put it that way. He just loves and adores me. And you know, I mentioned that I was molested when I was seven. I was also raped twice when I was fourteen, and my parents weren't able to help or defend me. And so it really has become my life's work too, be that advocate for the for children, for youth, and for the vulnerable who may

not otherwise have someone going to bat for them. And I also get so excited by the intellectual and practical solutions that I see because I'm an idealist and I I want peace, and I believe peace is possible, and we're not there yet, but peace can start in our own thoughts and actions. And I wanted you know, the bagvad Gita says, don't worry about the fruit of your actions, just do the next good, right, honest thing. There's that

lovely quote. Even if the world we're going to fall apart tomorrow today, I would still plant my apple tree. I'm just really committed to doing the right thing to alleviate suffering in any way that I can. You know, you've also been recognized as one of the leaders in the Me Too movement, and I wonder how you see that movement, which is certainly had its impact across the

United States, but increasingly around the world. Do you see a connection between that and the grassroots organizing that's been going on. I really do, Milan because when Toronto Burke said to herself on a mattress on the floor in her apartment twelve years ago, me too, she was tapping into that archetypal pan human need to be listened to, to be witnessed, to be understood, and to be validated.

Bob Keegan at the Harvard Graduate School of Education says, when we really see another person and witness them, we are recruited to their welfare and we can't unsee what we have seen. And when women share their stories and have the identification, there's something strengthening about that acknowledgement that allows for a little healing and a little possibility to enter in that kind of dialogue. You know, they're the consciousness raising sharing circles. You know, from feminism in the

nineteen seventies. There's just a power in it that I that I can't over I can neither explain it adequately nor overstate how important it is. And in South Sudan, you know, we essentially had women's march in a refugee camp. We were singing and stomping and dancing in the space, and you know, we were raising a kind of high holy hell. And that's what me too, is about reclaim, enjoy and radical community healing. Yeah, that's again so well put.

In conclusion, let me just raise the two thousand and eighteen Nobel Peace Prize because it was awarded to a Yazdi rape survivor and activist, Nadia Murad, someone we've come to know at Georgetown, as well as the Congolese gynecologist Dr Dennis mcgreeggy, and I, like so many, saw this award as something that can be truly inspirational besides something that was well deserved by the two of them, because it really recognized how sexual abuse is being used as

a tool of conflict and why it critically needs to be addressed. And I wonder if that Nobel Peace Prize award to them, how you felt about that, and also whether you think it can help in some ways to mobilize the international community around these issues in the kind of way that you've been discussing in our conversation here. I felt a lot of awe and joy in the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to those individuals, and I think it does critically raise global awareness about the use

of sexual violence and conflict. And I've had the pleasure of meeting Dr McCaughey a few times, and I visited his clinic and actually attended fishual repair surgery in the clinic, which you know, is a really eye opening experience because they're washing up preparing for, you know, a really invasive surgery in the vagina with a bar of soap and water that came from it's in a pail that came from the river, and the electricity went out a couple

of times during the surgery. And knowing that the Nobel commit recognizes individuals who are both survivors themselves and helpers who whose life work is prioritizing the healing of survivors, makes a deep statement to all of us that it's something about which we should care. It's historically tragic and wrong, and we can be on the right side of history by doing everything in our might to eradicate sexual violence. Well, Ashley, thank you so much for this, for taking the time.

Keep up that idealism that you mentioned that you so feel deeply, keep inspiring, inspiring us, inspiring so many with whom you meet in very difficult circumstances around the world, and keep making a difference. Thank you so much. You're very kind to me. Milan, Thank you. That is true. Current Ashley Judd has much to teach us about finding our voice and speaking out on behalf of others. Three things stick with me for my conversation with Ashley Judd.

When you know what your purpose is, you can find the strength to make change in yourself and the world. Ashley Judd has had a high profile Hollywood career, but it wasn't enough. She found her true purpose working on behalf of the exploited and vulnerable. Second, Ashley reminds us how much good we can do simply by recognizing other people's needs. As she said, there is a human need to be listened to, to be witnessed, to be understood, and to be validated. Finally, we can achieve peace in

the world. Ashley tells us that it starts in our own thoughts and actions, as she said, and just do the next good, honest thing. You can hear more conversations with women leaders who are making change on the Seeking Peace podcast from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and tune in next time to hear one hundred women to hear. Learn about our next featured woman and discover

why she's one of Seneca's one Women to Hear. Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from founding partner Pung. If you like what you heard on the show, rate and review it on Apple Podcasts, we hope you'll join us for our next episode of one hundred Women to Hear, where we can all listen, learn and get inspired. Have a great day, doctor, Doctor Patter