The Silent Protest

For the first time at Monash South Africa, a Silent Protest against gender and sexual violence took place on campus. As silence fell over the university, a palpable wave of emotion swept over us. Participants, all in purple, some with duct tape across their mouths, linked arms and marched in unity. 

Building up to this important day, bits of purple had been trickling through campus starting with the umbrellas that the Intersections team set up. Students were invited to sign up and register as volunteers to help make the protest a success on the day and were issued with T-shirts to wear to aid awareness of this protest.

The colour purple represents courage, survival, honour and dedication to ending gender violence. It has a long history of being used as a symbol by women seeking justice. The visual protest is an act of solidarity with survivors of gender violence. It aims to draw public attention to the realities of gender violence and to demand better support services for survivors.

The purple pillars outside Building F invited all students and staff to help spread messages of hope around campus for the survivors of gender violence as notes of encouragement and support were pinned to the pillars for all to read.

 
On the big day, students and staff wore duct tape across their mouths representing the silence that victims feel they have to keep. The isolation and debilitation of not being able to tell somebody about their experience for fear of getting hurt or being blamed for what happened. The Silent Protest aims to break the silence and let the victims of gender violence speak out and finally let go of the hurt they have been harbouring.

 

 

The protest began at 12:00 at Lekgotla Square between Buildings E and F. In a sea of purple, people linked arms and stood together in solidarity, then proceeded to march through the campus buildings and gardens in total silence. Not a word was said and the quietness caused many to become emotional as they identified with the true meaning of this protest. 

Steven Maverick, who organized the protest, was the first to give a speech about the event and he too became emotional.

“Thousands are brutally raped and murdered annually, in an undeclared war on women. But it’s hard to imagine what this looks like, the tragedy gets lost in all the numbers. So like taped mouths, the purpose of the die-in is to create yet another visual cue, allowing people to imagine what the stats look like. So we ask people to take a moment to be still and really imagine how many lives have been lost. To become the embodiment of that loss, for just a short time in order to honour the dead and recommit to the living action to end violence.”

The Die-In took place immediately after the speeches and all participants lay down on the floor for a couple of minutes to create a visual and highly graphic representation of the lives that have been lost due to sexual violence, thus taking a moment to remember those who are no longer here today.

 Representatives from Intersections had their say too. “Many people are out there are victims of rape. They say, ‘Because of this I have been de-humanised. I am not the person I used to be.’ But now we’re saying as Intersections, ‘No!’ We’re telling you that everyone who is standing in solidarity with everyone who is wearing the T-shirt that you are still the human being you used to be. I am standing for every other person out there who has been raped and is keeping quiet. Open up. Say your mind. Go for counselling. Do not kill yourself. Do not resort to taking alcohol and drugs because it leads to all that. It is time for you to speak up. To all this say, ‘You know what, is it time to end the silence.’ The time is now. The time is not tomorrow. Believe in yourself. If you have made that change, you have made a change in your community. We as Monash South Africans are saying that now is the time for us to join together and end gender inequality and come together and say we’re ending this violence.”

 

The Reflection Session took place after the protest in order to provide counselling and help to those who felt they needed to talk about their experiences. Those who felt that they needed to share their opinion and give others hope and support were also welcomed.

Salomn, a third year student studying International Relations and Media says, "Personally, I feel strongly that violence against women should be put to an end because so many women are being abused out there and so many of them remain silent because they are afraid of stigmatization. I believe that being a voice for them is a good thing and the perpetrators of such violence should have harsher sentences to deter them from sexual violence." Others said that their confidence has been boosted after the protest and now felt that they could stand up for other women and stand up for their rights.

The Head of Student Development, Vedhna Lalla, said that she was very happy with the turnout. “It was the first time that Monash South Africa has embarked on this event. Our department decided that we want to create an awareness around this. We weren’t expecting the students to respond in the way that they did and we’re very pleasantly surprised.” Steven Maverick says that he hopes to make it an annual event across all universities including Rhodes, Cape Town University, University of Pretoria and Johannesburg and many more.

Intersections says they would like to thank Vedhna Lalla and Steven Maverick for this great initiative, the whole staff of Student Development, all who participated and everyone who helped make the protest such a success.

Vedhna Lalla, Steven Maverick and other Student Development staff members

 

Let us stand together in solidarity against gender violence!