News / Africa
Minister to take part in miniskirt march
16 Feb 2012 at 20:12hrs | Views
Johannesburg - South Africa's minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana will participate in Friday's march to protest against assaults on women wearing miniskirts.
"Through this march we are reclaiming our streets from those who abuse and terrorise women and children," Xingwana said in a statement on Thursday.
Earlier this year, the minister condemned an attack on two women wearing short skirts at the Noord Street Taxi Rank in central Johannesburg.
"The scourge of women abuse threatens to erode many of the hard-earned gains of the liberation struggle.
"It denies women their birth rights. It condemns them to a life of fear and prevents them from being productive members of society," said Xingwana.
The march, convened by the ANC Women's League and supported by the Congress of SA Trade Unions, is expected to start in the Johannesburg CBD at 14:00 on Friday [February 17].
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA [Numsa] also put its weight behind the initiative.
The assaults at Noord Street highlighted the deep-seated and embedded sexism and rottenness of society as personified by some taxi landlords and drivers, it said in a statement.
"The right of women to freedom of movement, freedom from sexual harassment and the right to dignity in our society can never be determined by the clothes that a woman chooses to wear."
"Through this march we are reclaiming our streets from those who abuse and terrorise women and children," Xingwana said in a statement on Thursday.
Earlier this year, the minister condemned an attack on two women wearing short skirts at the Noord Street Taxi Rank in central Johannesburg.
"The scourge of women abuse threatens to erode many of the hard-earned gains of the liberation struggle.
"It denies women their birth rights. It condemns them to a life of fear and prevents them from being productive members of society," said Xingwana.
The march, convened by the ANC Women's League and supported by the Congress of SA Trade Unions, is expected to start in the Johannesburg CBD at 14:00 on Friday [February 17].
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA [Numsa] also put its weight behind the initiative.
The assaults at Noord Street highlighted the deep-seated and embedded sexism and rottenness of society as personified by some taxi landlords and drivers, it said in a statement.
"The right of women to freedom of movement, freedom from sexual harassment and the right to dignity in our society can never be determined by the clothes that a woman chooses to wear."
Source - Sapa
