On February 10, New York's Madison Square Garden throbbed with red as 18,000 people flowed into the arena wearing the color of passion and violence in support of V-Day. For the fourth year now, Eve Ensler has orbited her award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, like a sisterhood satellite to shake the world awake to the atrocities being committed against women. As this evening progressed, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Queen Latifah, Calista Flockhart, Gloria Steinem, and more than 60 other celebrated women took the stage. Oprah introduced one shrouded figure covered in the head-to-toe burka that all Afghanistan women are forced to live in, and helped her remove the stifling garment—a liberty that only highlighted the plight of those back home, who are being starved of every imaginable freedom. Beatrice Torome, a 15-year-old from Kenya, also shared her story, breaking down and sobbing as she recounted how she ran away to escape female circumcision. But Ensler's magic is in mixing tears with laughter, getting everyone to bond over private parts, even coaxing the audience into faking an orgasm. You haven't lived until you've heard 18,000 share a group moan.

Become a Woman Called to Action

• To volunteer or donate to V-Day, visit www.vday.org or write a check to V-Day, P.O. Box 23570, Santa Fe, NM 87502 Find out more about the phenomenal Eve Ensler. 
• What does it mean to have self-esteem? Listen to what Gloria Steinem has to say.
• Start making a difference today.