SOLIDARITY WTH WOMEN WHO SPEAK OUT!

Today is the best of all in AWID International Forum Cape Town where more than 2,000 women from all over the world converge for POWER OF MOVEMENT CONFERENCE. I witnessed the most powerful protest in history today. The most important part of this protest ( 1 in nine campaign) was the fact that I was there. I was there to join women from all across the oceans, from all around the world to say NO TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, to support our brother and sisters in SOUTH AFRICA to advocate for justice in different pending women's human rights issues, to remind the world TO STOP WAR ON OUR BODIES. We marched from CITCC were AWID Forum that brought together over 2,000 women from across the continents were having thier programs to deliver a memorandum to the premier of the Western Cape, Lynn Brown.

The protest is in solidarity with women who speak out against gender based violence, it was born in 2006 during the Jacob Zuma trial. The protest was a powerful one and it made me believe more in the power of Movement. As women, we need to know that one woman problem some place is a collective problem of women everywhere.

There was a banner carried by men with an overwhelming message that goes thus " ONE MAN CAN: stop rape, violence against women..." and another banner says"DEFY PARTRIACHY"! ( I will try and upload the pictures later, when I lay my hands on the pictures) Together we will change the world, together we will achieve gender equality! THE MOST POWERFUL MARCH IN THE HISTORY OF WOMEN STRUGGLE

Thanks Rucha Tadwalkar and Rosly for sharing the pictures and videos with me.

The detail of the cuase as it is, is added below:
The One in Nine Campaign invites you to join feminists and women's rights

activists attending the AWID forum and those based in Cape Town in a march

to protest violence against women and women human rights defenders. The

march is non-partisan, issue specific and premised on feminist principles,

particularly women's leadership.

PURPOSE OF THE MARCH: Worldwide, women human rights defenders are targeted

and silenced while criminal (in)justice systems and governments globally

fail to provide redress and justice.

We will march in memory of raped and murdered women in South Africa,

highlighting specifically the cases of Khwezi, Buyisiwe, Thandeka, Eudy,

Zoliswa, Gugu Dlamini, Nandipha Makeke, Lorna Mlofana, Sizakele & Salome,

Christina & Hola, and we will march to demand justice.

We will march in solidarity with women human rights defenders who are

harassed, beaten, detained, murdered, highlighting the ongoing abuse of

women leaders of civil society in Zimbabwe, including Jenni and MaG, two

detained WOZA women leaders in Zimbabwe. We demand an end to state sponsored

violence aimed at silencing women human rights defenders.

WE DEMAND:

. An end to impunity for perpetrators of violence against women

. Greater legal protection for women's rights through the enactment of

appropriate laws and policies, including the ratification and domestication

of all relevant international and regional human rights instruments

. A more responsive and survivor centred criminal justice system

. An end to state sponsored violence against women (in Zimbabwe, but also

globally)

Protesters will gather at the CTICC (Cape Town Convention Centre) at 12h30

on Saturday 15 November 2008.

ROUTE: The march will proceed from CTICC to Speakers Corner on Heerengracht

where formal assembling will take place. We will then proceed down

Heerengracht and Adderley Street (Heerengracht becomes Adderley Street)

proceeding past the Strand Street Crossing and the Golden Acre; we will then

turn right into Wale Street from Adderley Street to the Provincial

Legislature (situated in Wale Street). After handing over the memorandum to

the Provincial Legislature, the participants will march back to the

Convention Centre by proceeding up Wale Street and crossing Long Street.

Finally we will turn right into Loop Street and then proceed down lower Long

Street which will lead the march back to the Convention Centre.

ORGANISATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS ARE ENCOURAGED TO:

. send a message of solidarity to 1in9@powa.co.za or via fax to +27 11

4843195

. march with us

. submit the names & pictures of women silenced by sexual violence (only

with relevant permission from survivors or family)

. bring your organisations' banner to the march

. make placards with the pictures and names of women human rights defenders

and survivors of violence you wish to remember

. volunteer to be marshals (you will be provided with a marshal t-shirt on

the day)

THE ONE IN NINE CAMPAIGN WILL:

. ensure the necessary permissions are secured and services are on site

. supply 1000 One in Nine t- shirts for marchers

. supply 1000 placards

. ensure water is available along the route