Harvard held a one-time performance of the production this year in the week before V-day.

This year's national V-day rally filled the 18,000 person Madison Square Garden.

"We called it 'Take Back the Garden,'" Ensler said.

The Vagina Monologues has been performed in more than 17 countries this year.

Ensler said she sees the production as a geopolitical stimulus for action. One of the performances involved Macedonian women from various ethnic backgrounds.

"It was the first time in history that these Macedonians came together to say the word 'vagina' in their native tongue. If you say vagina, you can communicate in a different way than you can about ethnic groups," she said.

Ensler called for an end to the desecration of women, particularly in Afghanistan and in Africa, where she said more than 2 million women experience genital mutilation against their will.

Calling the sex trade "shocking," Ensler stressed the urgency of proactively combating violence against women.

"It is crucial to save women," she said. "We are not thriving to half our capacity. We need to be able to be free to create and think."

Future plans to promote Ensler's agenda include an HBO special, a series of monologues geared toward younger girls and a grant program to fund creative ways to combat rape.