Pinays in HK Join Call to End Violence Against Women
HONG KONG — Dozens of Filipino domestic helpers here joined the over 1,000 participants who marched Sunday to call for an end to all forms of violence against women.
The march was part of the “One Billion Rising” movement was led by Filipino theater actress Monique Wilson and “Vagina Monologues” playwright Eve Ensler, who swung to the city to join the event.
The participants, wearing purple shirt, marched in Central and chanted that they want immediate “system change, social inclusion” and an “end to poverty.”
The group said One Billion Rising or OBR is the biggest mass action to against violence against women in human history.
In the past two years in Hong Kong, Asian women migrant workers and supporters highlighted the issue of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih to call for justice and an end to violence against women domestic workers in the territory.
Sulistyaningsih is the former Indonesian domestic worker who was abused and maltreated by her employer in Hong Kong. Her female employer has been sentenced to a jail term over the abuse.
The statement from the group said that “migrant workers and local women will join together to advance various issues showing the continued exploitation, oppression and violence women from different walks of life experience in Hong Kong.”
“These include poverty, unemployment, discrimination, social exclusion and modern-day slavery,” it said. —KBK, GMA News