South Africa's Women's Day is celebrated in Seoul

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South Africa's Women's Day is celebrated in Seoul

Zenani N. Dlamini, ambassador of South Africa to Korea, front center, Democratic Party Rep. Shin Hyun-young, second from right in front row, and women representing over a dozen nations and professions including diplomacy, tourism, public health and education celebrate South Africa's Women's Day at the Lotte Hotel Seoul on Tuesday. [ESTHER CHUNG]

Zenani N. Dlamini, ambassador of South Africa to Korea, front center, Democratic Party Rep. Shin Hyun-young, second from right in front row, and women representing over a dozen nations and professions including diplomacy, tourism, public health and education celebrate South Africa's Women's Day at the Lotte Hotel Seoul on Tuesday. [ESTHER CHUNG]

Women from many walks of life and over a dozen nations including South Africa, Korea, Australia, Tunisia, Portugal, Nigeria and the Netherlands gathered in Seoul on Tuesday to remember the spirit of 20,000 women in South Africa who marched for their rights 66 years ago.
 
“Is it enough for women, wherever we find ourselves, to salute women once or twice a year, yet not spend the time getting to know our neighbors, or even to notice when they are missing?” asked Zenani N. Dlamini, ambassador of South Africa to Korea, addressing some 40 women gathered to celebrate National Women’s Day of South Africa at the Lotte Hotel Seoul on Tuesday.  
 
“I want to propose that we, each of us, use this Women’s Day to begin looking into our own lives and to examine the ways in which we hinder or help other women to become empowered, to be seen.”
 
Listening in the audience were several women ambassadors to Korea and spouses of ambassadors, including Australian Ambassador Catherine Raper, Dutch Ambassador Joanne Doornewaard and Tunisian ambassador’s spouse Malika El Khadhri El Abed.
 
National Women’s Day in South Africa is commemorated on Aug. 9 to remember the 20,000 women who marched on Aug. 9, 1956, to protest Apartheid pass laws that forced African women to carry identity documents and severely limited their movements.
 
The march was not a one-time event. There were protests in 19 different areas in South Africa in 1956, according to the South African Embassy, and the ones that followed for years finally led to the laws’ repeal in 1986.  
 
Dlamini’s mother, pregnant with her, took part in these marches.
 
“In 1958, when my mother Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was pregnant with me, she was arrested in yet another demonstration against the extension of passes to women,” said Dlamini, in what marked a rare moment for the diplomat to speak publicly about her family.
 
Dlamini is daughter of late former South African President Nelson Mandela.
 
“Through the decades when my father was in prison, the apartheid regime did everything it could to destroy her,” she said. “And ladies, she did not break. As the women of 1956 said, ‘You strike a woman, you strike a rock. You will be crushed.’”
 
The event hosted in Seoul on Tuesday was also joined by Democratic Party Rep. Shin Hyun-young, who serves as secretary general of the Forum for Africa’s New Era at the National Assembly.
 
Stressing how fewer than 20 percent of lawmakers in Korea were women, Shin called for more gender equality in the legislative body.  
 
“In contrast, South Africa has 182 women parliamentarians out of 397 legislators, which is equivalent to 45.8 percent [of total lawmakers],” Shin said. “I strongly believe that women’s political engagement is the cornerstone of a sustainable future for all.”
 
The event on Tuesday was also hosted in light of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between South Africa and Korea.  
 

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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