Female Protest Against the Sexual Violence

Republic of Ireland

#ThisIsNotConsent

On November 6^th, 2018, the female victim’s underwear was adduced as a circumstantial evidence during the sexual assault (rape) trial in Ireland, in order to prove the victim’s agreement on the sexual relationship. The fact that a defendant was found innocent has been announced to the public and it caused some protest and indignation. A 27-year-old man, who was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl, said they had an agreed sexual relationship. During the defence process, the accused’s lawyer presented the underwear, which the victim wore at the time, as evidence, and said problematic words. On the 6^th of November, the lawyer presented the lace thong and said, “Does the evidence out-rule the possibility that she was attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone?” and also said, “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front". Moreover, according to the Irish examiners, Elizabeth o'Connell, the lawyer of the defendant, asserted that the possibility of woman feeling attracted to the man should be considered to the jury. Regardless of a ridiculous claiming that woman wearing thong proves a consent of sexual relation, after a 90 minute discussion, the jury made a verdict on the defendant. As these proceedings are known through the local media, Ruth Coppinger (Irish Solidarity–People Before Profit politician), criticized the court and the society, which blame a victim for sexual violence because of a mere lace underwear, at the Irish Parliament on November 13^th, 2018. On the social networking sites, women in all over the world started to post pictures of their underwear with a hashtag, #ThisIsNotConsent. The purpose of this online movement is to let the world know that wearing ‘provocative’ underwear is not an agreement of the sexual relationship. Furthermore, a protest was held in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland; people protested on the street with a thong on November 14^th.  In addition, about 200 women who were upset about the verdict protested in front of the Cork court. They displayed diverse thongs in front of the court and shouted, “Thongs can’t talk”, “Yes means yes”, and “No means no”.  

Saudi Arabia

Women2Drive

Starting from 1990, women in Saudi Arabia protested against the government’s restriction on women’s driving. At that time, about 40 women drove along the main streets of the capital city, Riyadh, and were eventually detained by the police and many of them were suspended from their jobs. The protest continued since 1990. In 2007, numerous activists delivered petitions to King Abdullah II, and in the following year Wajeha al-Huwaider filmed a video of her driving to celebrate the World Women's Day and posted it on YouTube. Even in 2011, the women in Saudi Arabia protested against the prohibition of women’s driving by posting driving videos on Youtube. Many of the participants were arrested or forced to write a pledge to give up driving. In 2013, women human rights activists launched a similar campaign on October 26^th to overthrow the ban on driving. Oujain Al-Hathloul, one of the activists, announced the campaign’s official start by posting video on internet. Soon after, they were exposed to continuous threat of government to stop the campaign. On October 14^th, the Saudi Interior Ministry said they would respond ‘firmly and rigorously’ to the campaign and on October 25^th, the campaign website was hacked. After the continuous protest, Saudi Arabian government issued the driving license to 10 women who have received an international driving license from other countries on June 5^th, 2018. However, many of the women activists are still under arrest. Saudi Arabian government has publicly announced that they will allow about 2,000 women to apply for driving license next year. 

Iran

My Stealthy Freedom

‘My Stealthy Freedom’ is the women’s campaign (protest) against the pressure on wearing hijab in Iran. Recently, the protest against the government’s dictatorship has been changed as protests of hanging the hijab on the stick. This campaign had started by Masih Alinejad (Iran Journalist) on 2014 and promote women to post their pictures without hijabs on SNS. Staring from May of 2017, under the slogan of ‘White Wednesday’, women began to post pictures of wearing white hijabs. Even a 83-year-old-woman participated, too. In her video, she states that Iranian women protested when the former ruler of Iran, Shah Reza Khan, banned the hijab in 1936 and will keep protesting the Islamic Republic that forces women to wear it.