Eve Ensler at D7: “Blood Coltan” in Congo

This week, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher are hosting the D7 conference in San Diego and today, Kara Swisher interviewed Eve Ensler, playwright of the “The Vagina Monologues” and the founder of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

Eve Ensler was among those who testified at the hearing recently held by the Senate Foreign Relations Comittee and called “Confronting Rape and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones.” The goal is to end the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where 1,100 women a month are raped, in part as a consequence of the region’s coltan trade. Coltan, or columbite tantalite, is a mineral from which niobium and tantalum are extracted, tantalum is a necessary component for the manufacturing of a wide range of consumer electronics such as cell phones and computers.

We hope that if the consumers are aware of this dramatic situation, it will help to change it. Read the full interview on All Things Digital.

Photos from Black Hills Industrial Minerals and Tierra/ Red Iris.