Angelenos champion women’s rights at march
By Claire Makepeace
March 8, 2009 10:27 p.m.
Protesters marched through the streets of Westwood this past Saturday, gathering to call attention to the oppression of women in Afghanistan and Iran.
The International Women’s Day Coalition of L.A. organized the second annual march through Westwood in order to celebrate International Women’s Day, which was Sunday.
“The coalition is a group of women based in Los Angeles who are fighting to bring public attention to the cause of the March 8 Women’s Organization,” said Clair Akai, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles coalition.
The event started with a rally on the corner of Pico and Westwood Boulevards, where demonstrators’ speeches were given from a painted red truck adorned with protest posters and surrounded by a crowd of approximately 60 people, said Steffie Yutam, a second-year international economics student.
The protestors then marched behind the truck to the corner of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards. where another rally took place.
“This is an issue that UCLA students care about, but I don’t think that enough of them were aware of the event. I didn’t see any posters on Bruin Walk,” Yutam said.
Speakers included members of Bruin Feminists for Equality and several professors, including UCLA education information studies Professor Peter McLaren. He spoke on the gender inequality present in the Islamic republics of Iran and Afghanistan.
“For generations, patriarchal structures have exploited and demeaned women, and we are here to say today that this must stop,” he said.
International Women’s Day originated in 1909 in honor of a strike by the female garment workers of New York’s factories who were protesting about the terrible conditions under which they had to work, Akai said.
The day officially became celebrated on March 8, 1975, when it was recognized by the United Nations. It became associated with the situation in Iran and in 1979 following mass riots by women in Tehran when the leader of the Islamic regime at the time required women to wear the hijab, an Islamic head cover for women.
The day has since been focused on the plight of women in the Middle East. Women have suffered under regimes such as that of the Taliban, Akai said.
The Los Angeles coalition wants to show support for the March 8 Women’s Organization, which was founded in 1997 by Afghan and Iranian women who fled their countries due to persecution, Akai added.
The organization in Europe contacted women in the U.S. through personal contacts and their Web site, she added. Some of the American women then formed the coalition to create the annual rally in Los Angeles.
Though the demonstration was held on Saturday in Los Angeles, the official International Women’s Day took place in Europe on Sunday. Clandestine meetings were held in Iran and marches and seminars were held in Europe, including the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, according to the United Nations Web site.
According to a statement from the March 8 Women’s Organization, the members of the coalition “need and want the support of the people living in the U.S.”
Though women in Iran and Afghanistan may seem far away, this issue is relatable to many different cultures, said Samantha Cajucom, a second-year nursing student and part of Kappa Psi Epsilon, a sorority that focuses on women’s rights.
“I haven’t gone through the oppression that they have, but due to the history of oppression of women in my Pilipina culture, I feel that I can relate,” Cajucom said.
