Looking back at 2020: Leaves from the Diaries of Dissent
No one was prepared for 2020 and all that it had in store for the planet. While much else took a beating, the patriarchy continued to grow - stubbornly, vehemently, undaunted - and manifested in several ways that ranged from structural violence through law and policy to outright violence in the form of sexual assault. Resisting, fighting, and protesting all that is wrong with the system, women stood at the forefront in many parts of the world. We look back at 2020 and highlight some of the protests women and non-binary folk helmed through last year.
Mexico: Women protested gender-based violence and rampant femicide to take down the "virus of patriarchy." (Image: GETTY)
Poland: Protesters rallied against the Polish government’s plans to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Domestic Violence (Image: 2020 AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
India: Women are at the frontlines, protesting three laws that affect farmers' rights, in what is known to be the largest protest to be documented world over. (Image: Outlook India)
Turkey: Women marked the International Day of Women by marching in defiance of a protest ban, in order to demand greater rights for women and to denounce violence. (Image: GETTY)
Belarus: (Image: Associated Press)
Women protested against Belarusian authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, for having rigged the elections. Even as their protests were met with violent crackdowns, the women continued to protest peacefully. (Image: EPA)
India: Following the brutal rape, murder, and police-imposed funeral of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, India, women took to the streets to call for justice for the young woman. (Image: Free Press Journal)
Pakistan: Following the brutal rape of a woman on a deserted highway, women protested condemning violence against women and girls. (Image: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)
Peru: Following the rampancy of femicide and systemic apathy, women in Peru protested against the government's inaction and called for a stringent response. (Image: Carlos Garcia Granthon/Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Cameroon: Women stripped half naked on the streets in a move to call for the release of the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Maurice Kamto who has been under house arrest since September 22. (Image: Journal du Cameroun)
United States of America: Women from Native American communities protested to bring awareness to the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women movement. (Image: AZBig Media)
Nigeria: Women protested police brutality and called for justice for victims, while also helping fundraise for the movement. (Image: Adam Abu-bashal/Anadolu/Al-Jazeera)
