Lindsay's 1st protest in Cape Town

The first protest I partook in since being here was this past Friday on International Women’s Day there was an organized march against gender-based violence. I knew it was going to be a cool experience but I didn’t expect it to be so moving. First there was a service that displayed many different local congregations coming together to stand up for women’s rights and gender equality. Probably the most interesting person that spoke was a Shi’ite priest telling about how cruelty against women is not in the Quran but the prophet speaks of equality in the home. He asks the congregation how you can beat your wife and then want to engage in sexual relations with her. After the rest of the religious leaders spoke we moved outside where they rang out bells to spread the word and we were all given whistles to continue creating noise.           

Lindsay rings the bell to end violence against women

While we were walking out the door we were handed signs, each with different saying things about standing up for women’s rights and in particular bringing an end to rape. The part I enjoyed the most about the protest was seeing the people’s reactions on the street that we passed. Because of the tremendous ruckus we were making, many people were holding their ears and reading our signs. Many people gave us thumbs up, there was an entire bus of senior citizens that was hooting and hollering for us. My favorite bystander was this one woman that stepped out of the store she was working in and thanked everyone in our procession. She stood there in the blaring noise of our whistling and screaming and peacefully and sincerely thanking each individual she made eye contact with.

           

It made me wonder what her story might be. Who does she know that has been affected by rape? One of the signs we held was ‘I march for my sister, mother, aunt.’ I wondered if she was someone personally affected or has the connection to a victim that was on our sign, or was just saying thank you for all of these people standing up for women. The group marching was actually pretty close to even ratio, there were slightly more women but seeing just as many men protesting for equality and women’s safety was really encouraging. To feel and experience a group of people working towards a common goal of equality was absolutely amazing and incredibly inspiring