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- Featured News: Large Scale Sexual Violence in Indonesia
- Councilwoman of Kaohsiung City Murdered in China
- Jodie Foster Causes Dispute of Gays' Rights to Children-raising
- Affirmative Action within DPP Nearly Gone
- Featured News: Large Scale Sexual Violence in Indonesia
During the May riot in Indonesia, there were at least 168 Chinese
Indonesian
women raped or gang raped because of their ethnicity, and of course,
gender.
Through the internet the victims have been asking help from overseas and
publishing photos of the violence. According to news reports, Indonesian
merchants have begun to sell 'chastity belts' so women can avoid being
raped. The demand is high. Many Taiwanese female legislators and
representatives of various women organizations have gone to protest at
the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesia Office of Economic and
Trade
Affairs in Taipei. Organizations that have showed support to the victims
include:
- Sinanet initiated [Yellow Ribbon on the InternetˇXProtest Against
Indonesian's anti-Chinese riot] at the website:
http://www.sinanet.com.tw
- Women organizations initiated [Letter From Everyone to Support the
Victimized Chinese Women and to Raise Funds] at the website:
http://www.goh.org.tw or http://www.vot.tw.
Please send your donation to Women's Rescue Foundation and note that the
money is for [Victimized Chinese Women in Indonesia]. Their account
number at the post office is 126271604.
- Wang Ching-Fong, a former member of the Control Yuan which is in
charge of the discipline of public functionaries, will go to Indonesia
with
representatives of women organizations. Peng Wan-Ru foundation held a
press conference accusing the Modern Women Foundation of injuring the
victims by releasing photos of violence to the press. The release of the
photos, they claimed, is like giving an aphrodisiac to a sexual sadist.
- Councilwoman of Kaohsiung City Murdered in China
Lin Di-Juan, councilwoman of Kaohsiung City, was kidnapped and drugged
in
China because of her boyfriend's debts. The Chinese government later
confirmed that she was already murdered.
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Why there is always bad news for women ? We lost another sister
again.
You must have seen Ms Lin on TV before. She spoke fluent Taiwanese with
a
calm composure, a quick mind, and a sharp tongue. She was only
twenty-eight
while elected as a
councilwoman of Kaohsiung City with the second highest number of votes.
She
did not have a family background in politics and relied all on her
wisdom
and capability. Two years ago, Peng Wan-Ru, another sister of ours, was
murdered, and now it was Lin... Those outstanding women achieved
self-realization through their work in the public sphere died but died
in an
untimely fashion. It is really a setback for women's participation in
politics.
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- Jodie Foster Causes Dispute of Gays' Rights to Children-raising
Renowned actress Jodie Foster recently gave birth to a son and became
another unwedded mother. Because of the continuing speculation that
Foster
is a lesbian, gay and lesbian organizations in Taiwan once again argued
that
homosexuality is not deviant. Gays and lesbians should also have the
right
to form a family and to raise children. However, the League of
Children's
Welfare claimed that several years ago "married couple" was already
set as
a requirement for adoption, so singles and homosexuals are totally
excluded.
- Affirmative Action within DPP Nearly Gone
In the Congress of National Representatives of the Democratic Progress
Party (DPP), Zhuang Sheng-Rong, representative of the National Assembly,
proposed an amendment for the affirmative action policy and criticized
the
women members of the party. He claimed that women did not work hard and
just
relied on the affirmative action policy, and, according to him, the
policy
easily results in corruption. Li Yong-Ping, Director of the Department
of
Women's Affairs in the Democratic Progressive Party, along with other
female representatives, criticized Zhuang's viewpoint, and asked the
party
members not to forget the sacrifices of Peng Wan-Ru. Another National
Assembly member, Lin Chong-Mo, and Lin Fong-Xi, a member of the
Legislative
Yuan, however, supported Zhuang's viewpoint. They agreed that the
affirmative action policy indeed affects election results. A war almost
broke out between the men and the women within DPP. Others later
postponed
the amendment to appease both sides.
| Womenet |
Womenet News |
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