World

Women Protest Violence, Poverty

October 16, 2000 / 9:36 AM EDT / AP

Women from around the world marched Sunday and shouted "Shame!" at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund buildings in a protest against world poverty and the mistreatment of women.

Several thousand marchers from Africa, Asia and the Americas chanted in a cacophony of languages their support for equal rights for women and their opposition to domestic violence.

"Violence and poverty are the two main enemies of African women," Oumarsou Hadiza, a teacher from Niger, said at the event Sunday. "I want to stop the violence and poverty around the world and that's why I came here."

The IMF and the World Bank are the main lending institutions for poor countries. Activists in a major new movement against globally based economics contend the institutions' lending policies discriminate against the poor.

The Washington rally was a culminating event of the World March of Women 2000, which began in March in Geneva.

The movement's international delegation planned to meet Monday with IMF and World Bank officials to seek greater debt relief and improved lending for poor countries. The same group will meet with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday to present him with petitions signed by 2 million people seeking an end to violence against women.

"This march is against the champions of patriarchy that deny the human, democratic and social welfare of women," said Ramesh Sepehrrad, spokeswoman for the National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran.

Other speakers from the United States had a political focus.

"In three weeks and a few days we will carry this energy, this enthusiasm and these issues to the voting booths of this country to elect a government that will support our equality," said Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, the lead organizer of the march.

Ireland also condemned the treatment of women in the war-ravaged regions of the world. "Our prayers and our spirit goes out to those in the Middle East, especially the women and the children," she said.

The cheering crowd held signs supporting a range of issues such as defense of abortion rights and protests of female circumcision, or genital mutilation.

Molly Mattessich, 21, said she came from Boston because she empathized with the condition of women around the world. "It was important for me to come because there are so many women around the world who can't speak for themselves," she said.

Some men joined in. Dan Nooter, 23, of Washington, spent his day volunteering at the march. "Violence is something that men have a responsibility for ending," he said. "But I'm not coming out here as a man. I'm coming out here as someone who is concerned about ending violence and poverty."