The student group of Amnesty has been campaigning against sexual violence at the UT since June 2021. They are close to getting the UT to sign the manifesto that ensures better protection of students. ‘This art exhibition is part of the sixth promise of the manifesto that tries to involve students in the implementation’, says Yara Mostafa, a Communication Science student and member of the Amnesty group at the UT.
Empathy
The exhibition will be held during the evening in Sickhouse Enschede and hosts twenty artists, performing in different art styles. ‘All artists are Enschede residents and will perform on the topic of sexual violence. This will be in the form of paintings, music, poetry, sculptures, media, and digital art’, says Mostafa.
According to her, the artists will cover ‘different phases of sexual assault’. ‘These are the social conditioning before the assault, the assault itself, post-traumatic stress disorder and the healing phase after the assault has happened. Through art, empathy towards the emotions of victims of sexual violence can be accomplished.’
Triggering
She says the event could be triggering to some, but that has been thought of. ‘The exhibition will be helpful to create a consent culture around sexual violence. But it can also be triggering and overwhelming for attendees who have experienced sexual violence themselves. Therefore, we have invited a psychologist to the exhibition, who can be talked to in confidence’, says Mostafa.
According to the Communication Science student, the UT is planning to sign Amnesty’s manifesto in September. ‘They want to do so, provided that we have implemented all action points at the UT. Therefore, this art exhibition is of importance towards the UT signing the manifesto, since it covers the sixth promise of involving students.’
Do-group parent training
The Amnesty student group is ‘working hard towards implementing all the action points’. ‘For example, we now have a voice in the Kick-In. We are part of the do-group parent trainings, where we train the parents how to deal with sexual assault and the prevention of it during the Kick-In. Other examples are bystander trainings, discussion evenings, a photography exhibition and a movie night, where we showed the Netflix series ‘The Principles of Pleasure’.’
After the manifesto is signed, Amnesty will stay active at the UT for at least another year and a half, says Mostafa. ‘When the manifesto is implemented, it is all about maintaining the consent culture that we have created.’
