Last Thursday, in the Ivory Coast, thousands of women marched peacefully to protest the dictatorship that has clamped down on their country. They were met by the army, and were fired at. Seven women were killed.
From the Associated Press article I read: "The brutal slayings last week occurred when soldiers in armored personnel carriers opened fire on a crowd of female demonstrators who were armed with nothing more than tree branches, symbolizing peace."
Since then, fear of the army has kept the women from marching again, until today. Today, International Women's Day, they took to the streets again, knowing that they would be facing the guns that had fired on them last week.
Four more people were killed.
I am in awe of their bravery, and my heart goes out to them. The photo above is by Thierry Gouegnon, for Reuters. Here's the full AP article, and here the story that ran in the Guardian.
And my thoughts and hopes are also with the women of Egypt, whose recent protest for equal rights met with vicious heckling (here's that article).
It is a scary world.
How courageous of them to march a second time. I'll bet they go out a third time, despite the danger. I don't know how the soldiers who fired on them can sleep at night.
ReplyDeleteThese women are indeed courageous and should be honored. Thank you for bringing it to the attention of your many readers.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me so angry that the press is salivating, waiting for Charlie Sheen to crash and burn while these stories go uncovered. There was a brief mention of Ivory Coast on Twitter by Anderson Cooper a few weeks ago, but nothing came of the story, I didn't see anything else. So much is going on in Africa and the MidEast and we know so little.
ReplyDelete