'I Want a 24-Hour Rape Truce...'
25 Nov 2025
In partnership with Refuge, WOW has released a short film by Lorien Haynes to highlight the issue of sexual violence for this year’s UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
Singer-songwriters Self Esteem and Lianne La Havas, and actors Jason Isaacs, David Morrissey, Dame Harriet Walter, Saffron Burrows, Nathan Fillion and Lennie James are among the stars who feature in ‘I Want a 24-Hour Rape Truce…’.
The film is inspired by a powerful 1983 address by American radical feminist Andrea Dworkin to a conference of 500 men, in which she asked them for a rape-free day. The use of Dworkin’s speech has been approved by her long-term partner and literary executor, John Stoltenberg. In the speech, Dworkin asks:
And how could I ask you for less – it is so little. And how could you offer me less: it is so little. Even in wars, there are days of truce.
The project was conceived by actor, writer, producer and director Lorien Haynes, who discovered Dworkin’s address while working with Jude Kelly on her play Punched in 2021 to raise awareness about the rise in abuse and sexual violence during the pandemic.
This is a historical document, an incredibly powerful speech that was hard to know what to do with, because in principle you can’t campaign for a rape-free day – every day should be rape free. I wanted to get it out into the world as a question mark – a piece of critical thinking. It’s so provocative because you realise you’ve never thought about rape like that. You can have a ceasefire in war, but you can’t have a day where you ask men not to rape women.
It really hammers home that rape and sexual violence are so normalised that we know asking for this is impossible. And when you think about it like this, of course we don’t have equality. While women are living in fear, equality isn’t possible. There’s no equivalent – men are not living in fear of women in that way.
Both men and women feature in the film to reflect that a world without rape is in everyone’s interest. Lorien explains: “The film is about people coming together as human beings, not as genders, to acknowledge the reality of sexual violence – something almost one in three women will experience in their lifetime. While rape can sometimes be a random act, most cases happen within homes, marriages, and relationships, which is why our partnership with Refuge is so vital.”
WOW Founder Director Jude Kelly and CEO Colette Bailey appear in the film alongside Refuge CEO Gemma Sherrington.
For anyone affected by domestic abuse, including sexual violence, Refuge offers free, confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk.