Women urged to reflect on
International Women's Day
Source: TODAY Thursday November 25, 2004
PHILIPSBURG—"Reflect on the plight of women and children locally and
worldwide" is the message to women from Women's Desk on the occasion of
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, today, Thursday
November 25. The day is observed annually worldwide. The date was designated for
this purpose by the United Nations in October 1999.
To mark the day, Women's Desk in collaboration with Gender United is hosting a
panel discussion on domestic violence at Philipsburg Jubilee Li
ary on Friday
at 7:30pm.
"There is a lot of violence in our community and we have to reach out and try to
help and show each other that violence is not the way to go. We should use this
time to reflect on issues affecting us," Maria Kruythoff of Women's Desk told
The Daily Herald. "There is absolutely no excuse for violence against women and
children."
She urged all women to attend and take part in the panel discussion, which will
centre on examining some of the responses to violence and domestic violence
against women in the Caribbean region, particularly St. Maarten, and
scrutinizing Netherlands Antilles law and the protection it provides women.
Panellists are attorney Patricia Jackson -Marchena of Curacao, who has worked on
a number of women's issue cases, Women's Activist Folade Mutota of Trinidad and
local attorney Nilda Arduin.
Historically, before the United Nations general assembly declaration, November
25 was observed in Latin America and a number of other countries worldwide as
"International Day Against Violence Against Women." It was first declared by the
first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogota
Colombia in July 1981.
The date was chosen to commemorate the lives of the Mirabel sisters. It
originally marked the day that the three Mirabal sisters of the Dominican
Republic were violently assassinated in 1960 during the dictatorship of Rafael
Trujillo (1930-1961). The day was used to pay tribute to the Mirabal sisters, as
well as for global recognition of gender violence.
The Mirabal sisters were political activists and highly visible symbols of
resistance to Trujillo's dictatorship. As a result, the sisters and their
families were constantly persecuted for their outspoken as well as clandestine
activities against the State. Over the course of their political activity, the
women and their husbands were repeatedly imprisoned at different stages.
Trujillo declared in early November 1960 that his two problems were the Church
and the Mirabal sisters. On November 25, 1960, the sisters were killed in an
"accident" as they were being driven to visit their husbands who were in prison.
The accident caused much public outcry, and shocked and enraged the nation.
The brutal assassination of the Mirabal sisters was one of the events that
helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement and within a year the Trujillo
dictatorship came to an end.
The sisters, referred to as the "Inolvidables Mariposas" (the Unforgettable
Butterflies), have become the symbol of both popular and feminist resistance to
victimisation of women. (Information from United Nations Division for the
Advancement of Women)