Government backs miniskirt march against assault

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Feb 16 2012 17:23

Minister of Women 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 South African Trade Unions, is expected to start in the Johannesburg city centre at 2pm on Friday.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (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." -- Sapa