We kicked off our 16 days of activism through a simple, but effective action: chalking sidewalks and pavements.
Armed with 5 kotak of kapur berwarna-warni, we met up outside of the Masjid Jamek LRT station, berhampiran dgn Jalan Masjid India. Immediately, kami mencangkung di hadapan OCBC bank, dan menulis with bold words in red, yellow, blue, green, orange and white, messages about violence against women, discrimination against women, women's human rights and gender equality.
It was simple and effective. Ramai member-member awam berhenti dpd perjalanan mereka ke lunch break dsbgnya dan berkerumun dikeliling kami, bertanya-tanya, "what is this?", "apa yang kaum tengah buat?", "tulis apa nie?", "what's going on?", dan berikutan dgn "ooooh...... keganasan terhadap wanita!"
We managed to hand out some leaflets we took from the official NGO launch of the 16 days to the public, and also had conversations with passers-by about our action, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, what we think about gender equality and discrimination and women's human rights.
Of course we got stopped and chased off when we were writing outside of banks, with OCBC lasting about 20 minutes, and HSBC about 2 minutes! But generally, the reaction was not too hostile, and we just moved our action from spot to spot, stopping at sidewalks, traffic light junctions, bus stops, street clocks, walls and rubbish bins.
Chalking the Walkways started from Jalan Masjid India and ended at Pasar Seni, with us taking over a huge section of the pavement outside of Central Market. We got random members of the public to join in, and at the end, we named the space as "Ruang Seni tentang Diskriminasi" and left some chalks behind for the writing to continue.
Watch this space for our next action!
Di mana action ini bermula...
Mengambil-alih kaki lima dengan isu keganasan terhadap wanita
Orang awam juga menggabung tenaga dan menulis pertikaian mereka
Walaupun kami diusir dan telah beredar, mesej kami masih lagi berdaya menolehkan kepala
