Ethiopian Women’s Rally on Mother’s Day for a Mother and Political Leader in Prison

On Mother’s Day Weekend, May 7, 2010, Ethiopian and Ethiopian-American women took to the streets to protest the imprisonment of Birtukan Mideksa—a mother, a judge, and the most prominent pro-democracy leader. This rally, organized by the Ethiopian Women for Peace and Development (EWPD), Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (eacamoveon.org ), and Freebirtukan.org, focused on galvanizing women to appeal on behalf of an Ethiopian human rights advocate and her cause. 

Wearing their traditional Ethiopian attire, they assembled at the U.S. Department of State, and read out a letter addressed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to make it clear that the US government considers Birtukan’s imprisonment unjust. The woman marchers submitted the letter to the State Department staff, and marched to the White House. There, just meters from this symbolic locus of American power, an American film maker, Chris Flaherty, was on his fifth day of a complete hunger strike, through which he sought to urge President Obama to acknowledge the injustice being committed against Birtukan. The demonstrators connected with Chris, who spoke to them, encouraging the Ethiopian diaspora to get vigorously engaged in an organized fashion so that they can effectively influence US foreign policy toward Ethiopia through their US government representatives. 

The third stop of the Women’s Rally for Birtukan was the US Capitol, where speakers Douglas Brooks and Sasha Gong again strongly emphasized the value and importance of engaging in the American political process to make one’s voice heard and impact policies. The organizers also read a letter, which Congressmen Michael Honda wrote to the Ethiopian American women. The protest at the US Capitol was followed by visits to different Congresspersons’ offices, specifically, to the offices of Congressmen Michael Honda, Donald Payne, Christopher Smith, Christopher Van Hollen, and Frank Wolf. 

Posted by EthioSun on May 9, 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry