Philippines: Manila students protest violence against women

With purple ribbons on their wrists, more than 3,000 students, teachers and nuns from the Catholic-run St. Scholastica’s College in Manila take part in the global campaign to end violence against women and girls. Pic: AP.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Around 4,000 students from a Roman Catholic school in Manila have stomped their feet and raised their hands as they danced to call for an end to violence against women and girls.

Friday’s gathering included students ranging from kindergarteners to master’s degree candidates, as well as about a dozen nuns. It was part of a global campaign called One Billion Rising.

Actress Monique Wilson, a director of the movement that was started three years ago, says U.N. statistics show one in three women — or 1 billion — will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.

The school noted that domestic violence, sexual assault, cyber pornography, kidnapping and trafficking of women and children have all worsened, and that hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped last year by Islamic militants remain missing.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/130594/philippines-violence-against-women/