Bambang Muryanto and Ainur Rohmah, Semarang/Yogyakarta – Women's activists, university students and housewives in Yogyakarta and Semarang, Central Java celebrated Valentine's Day on Thursday with a campaign against gender-based violence.

In Yogyakarta, some 200 activists, university students and street art community members joined the global One Billion Rising (OBR) movement along the city's legendary Jl. Malioboro, to say no to sexual violence against women.

OBR Yogyakarta coordinator Emma said the movement held activities in nine cities across Indonesia. "This is a movement to commemorate the 15th Vagina Day," Emma said, referring to the annual commemoration launched by playwright Eve Ensler's (The Vagina Monologues) to call for the protection of women and girls.

Despite heavy rain, participants danced away to dangdut music while carrying posters calling for a stop to violence against women.

Emma said the musical genre was deliberately chosen because women were frequently subject to sexual harassment when they danced to dangdut music. "Now we want to show that women can also dance, accompanied by dangdut music, without experiencing sexual harassment," she said.

"While people around the globe are celebrating Valentine's Day, we call on everybody who cares to dance, to rise and to demand a stop to violence against women," Emma said.

The dancing do-gooders also distributed leaflets bearing the addresses of institutions in Yogyakarta that people could turn to when experiencing or witnessing violence against women and girls.

In Semarang, the campaign was staged along Jl. Pahlawan and in the Simpanglima area. Activist Witi Muntari said the OBR event also honored V-Day by walking, dancing and delivering speeches.

V-Day, she added, aimed to end violence against women and girls, to promote creative activities for increasing such awareness, to donate and to revitalize the spirit of anti-violence organizations.

Data at the Legal Resource Center for Gender Equality and Human Rights (LRC-KJHAM) Semarang showed that in 2012, there were 407 cases of violence against women across Central Java, involving 928 women victims, 26 of whom died.