"In addition to celebrating our lives, we also want to give visibility to the violence, oppression, and inequalities that women are subject to in an unequal society, whether cis [cisgender] women or trans [transgender] women," said Cheila Collaço Rodrigues, activist from the Lisbon branch of the March 8th Network.
The strike, which takes place on International Women's Day, is in its fifth edition and will take place today in the cities of Aveiro, Barcelos, Braga, Bragança, Coimbra, Évora, Faro, Guimarães, Leiria, Lisbon, Porto and Vila Real, and, on Saturday, in Chaves.
“This strike is based on a very specific wave of feminism and on three main pillars: the labour strike, the student strike, but also the care strikes – which is, basically, the work that women do in society and without which society collapses”, she stressed.
Cheila Rodrigues added that “capitalism collapses without women's domestic work”.
According to the activist, in the initiative that will take place in Lisbon, all victims of femicide during the past year in Portugal will be honoured.
“Every year we have access to numbers, which are shameful, and we are only talking about cases of femicide. We don't even talk about rape cases. There is greater visibility, but there is still a lot of work to be done”, she highlighted.
Violence, rape and murder don't just impact women, but men and children too. Any person can be a victim, it's not a gender issue. To make this issue gender-dependent is misandric and insulting to men. It almost suggests it's fine if men are victims of these crimes.
By Billy Bissett from Porto on 08 Mar 2023, 13:12