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 Leading the Charge Against Domestic Violence “Every time somebody hits a woman it’s like they’re hitting me,” says Salma Hayek. That’s how passionate the actress and activist is about fighting domestic violence. And that’s why she’s the national spokesperson for Avon’s Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program, a million-dollar initiative to raise awareness about this brutal epidemic, which will touch 31 percent of American women during their lifetime.Hayek’s also using her voice to change policy: She lobbied the Senate last year to renew the Violence Against Women Act, which allocates funding to train police officers and prosecutors; pay for victims’ legal counsel; and study how victims are affected by unemployment, kidnapping, and immigration laws. “We cannot tolerate a world in which one in three women is or will be a victim of domestic violence,” Hayek said in her July 2005 testimony before the Judiciary Committee. “One of the dangers with this issue is that most of us say, ‘That’s not my problem.’ In reality, it affects our whole society, because we are all connected.” Hayek’s commitment to this issue doesn’t stop at the United States border. In the last year, she’s donated more than $75,000 to domestic violence shelters in her Mexican hometown, Coatzacoalcos, and its neighbor Monterrey. And her commitment to women transcends boundaries of race, nationality, age, or any other superficial divide: “Body image and domestic violence are all of ours, these issues,” says Hayek. “The limitations that are put upon us and that we put upon ourselves keep us from being all that we can be. I really think it’s important that women have this kind of unity so we can support each other and love each other.” Once we do, she adds, the possibilities are endless: “Women are not in charge of the world. Why not? We are the majority of the world. If we got together we would be so powerful.” Hayek insists that women, even those who’ve been victims of domestic violence, already have more power than they know. “What I can say to women is that there are always a hundred choices,” she says. “You just have to work on your ability to see them. We can be in control of our lives. Women tell me all the time that I saved them. But I tell them, ‘No. You saved yourself.’” |
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As I’ve told you before, Salma will be on the cover of 
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