Indah Setiawati, Jakarta – Neither the scorching heat nor angry bosses could stop over 300 people from attending the One Billion Rising Indonesia flash mob dance at the National Monument (Monas) Park in Central Jakarta on Thursday.

While others were looking for flowers and chocolate to celebrate Valentine's Day, these people showed their solidarity with female victims of violence. For them, enough is enough.

American award winning playwright Eve Ensler, who created The Vagina Monologues, initiated the One Billion Rising movement last year as a call to mobilize people to walk out of their daily activities on Feb. 14, and transfer their energy to the plight of making violence against women unacceptable.

The movement is based on the statistic that as many as one in three women, or 1 billion women, will be raped, beaten or face violence in their lifetime. That is equal to approximately 14 percent of the world population of 7 billion.

In Indonesia, according to the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), the number of reported cases of rape, domestic violence and other forms of brutality against women reached 119,107 in 2012.

"I am annoyed that cases of rape and harassment are not taken seriously. Recently, a 7-year-old girl in my neighborhood was molested. The policewoman who dealt with the case asked for money to continue with the case, which made me so angry!" Yaya Haryadi, 36, told The Jakarta Post.

Yaya, who skipped work in a shipping company in North Jakarta in the afternoon, often witnessed sexual harassment on public buses. She said she armed herself with a long decorative pin that she put on her head scarf, which she would use to poke men who tried to take advantage of her on the crammed bus.

Elena Williams and Ashley Breckenridge were among participants who skipped work to join the global movement, which was also celebrated by a total of 11 cities in Indonesia and over 200 countries worldwide.

Wearing white T-shirts over their red outfits, the two Australian expatriates working in Menara Thamrin were more than animated when they joined the flash mob. "I am sick of rape being treated as a joke and as a funny word. I want people to stand up, to be angry, but I also want people to say we can change it," said Elena.

She was referring to judge Muhammad Daming Sunusi who caused national uproar last month after making the statement that some rape cases might involve consensual sex and may require more lenient sentences.

One Billion Rising in Jakarta began with a rehearsal of the flash mob dance, followed by a poem reading and a spirited music performance from Simponi, who composed "Sister in Danger" especially for the movement.

At around 3 p.m., participants of the event, which included men, women and children, danced the choreographed and free-style movement piece energetically. Their faces turned red and their shirts were wet, but nobody cared.

During the break, singer Kartika Jahja sang songs that spoke about filtering unimportant information from the media, love without gender boundaries as well as her famous "Mayday" song.

Valentine's Day was co-opted and shortened to V-Day by gender activists 14 years ago, in reference to the other "V" that is considered taboo in polite conversations.