2014 hasn’t exactly been the best year for women. With rapes, acid attacks and insensitive political comments women have seen a lot in 365 days. But there have been protests that were in favour of women and did make some difference. We take a look at some of these women-related protests that made us proud and hopeful.
In October this year, thousands of Iranians came to the streets to protest against acid attacks on women. The city of Isfahan saw more than 2000 people come out and support the victims. Reportedly eight to nine women in a span of three weeks had been subjected to these attacks by men on bikes.
Nairobi saw a massive protest in November this year as people fought for a women’s right to wear what she wants. The protest saw men and women dressed in miniskirts protesting against women being attacked and stripped naked for wearing miniskirts. The attack was initiated by a video that went viral on social media. The video saw men surrounding women, stripping them and kicking them in their genital area. The protest was aimed at stopping such violence against women. ‘My Dress, My Choice’ slogans were also chanted.
Closer home five women were seen dressed in Saffron, White and Green sheets. This was their way of protesting in front of the Kerala High Court against rapes. The protest was started after the Badaun Rape case in which two cousins were gang raped and killed. Although their effort led them to be taken under custody they did make it to the front page of newspapers and were able to invoke attention.
In June 2014 women in Lucknow were seen protesting against the increase in violence against women and innumerable rapes. Hundreds of women demonstrated outside Lucknow’s chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s office. They were forced to disperse after the police used water cannons to break the gathering.
December 2014, saw the rape of another 25-year-old by an Uber cab driver. This led to a protest where several people gathered in front of the Delhi police headquarters. This protest came in the wake of the Uber driver being exposed as a second-time rape offender. The protestors demanded stringent laws against rapist and better safety measures for women.
In India we have some odd customs and manual scavenging of human excreta is one of them. This was banned in 1993 but even today over a million people are manual scavengers most of them being women. In September 2014, thousands of women in Gujarat protested against the act of manual scavenging and supported its ban. This rally was the result of a National Campaign for dignity and elimination of manual scavenging which liberated 11,000 workers since 2001.
Image courtesy: BCCL
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