Elaine Martinez of the North Idaho Women’s Center, and Violence Prevention Center wants Bonners Ferry to recognize Denim Day, Wednesday, April 21.

April is sexual assault awareness month and Martinez suggests this is a good way to show awareness.

Community members, elected officials, businesses and students are asked to wear denim on this date as a fashion statement and protest against myths about rape and sexual assault.

Denim Day began after an Italian Supreme Court decision over a rape case enraged the women in Italian Parliament.

The case from 1992 involved an 18-year-old girl who was picked up by a 45-year-old  driving instructor to take her on her first driving lesson.  Instead the married man took the girl to an isolated road and wrestled with her removing one leg from her jeans and forced himself on her. The man threatened her he would kill her if she reported the rape.

The girl told her parents later that evening, the man was arrested, charged and sentenced.  He appealed the sentence all the way to the Italian Supreme court, where the sentence was overturned. The chief judge argued that because the victim wore very tight jeans she had to help him take them off, therefore it was no longer considered rape but consensual sex.

This is when the women in Italian Parliament started a movement by wearing jeans to work which evolved into an international symbol and protest against destructive attitudes about sexual assault.

Martinez would like to see our community in denim, Wednesday, in support of rape survivors.

For information, call Elaine Martinez at 208-627-2314.