Photo by Yafang Shi Women's March in Toronto, 2017
Photographer’s Statement
“Women’s Rights are Human Rights”*
by Yafang Shi
Women and their allies have marched
against glass-ceilings and walls
sexism and racism
embodied and enabled by a chilly reality show host in the White House.
Photo by Yafang Shi Women's March in Washington D.C., 2019
Women and their allies marched for a world
with bridges
a world with a feminist vision
that is equal, loving, green and peaceful.
In some parts of the world,
women still do not enjoy the rights
to assemble
to march.
Their voices are suppressed
their activism is cracked down.
The coronavirus outbreak
is a metaphor
for a sinister totalitarian state
led by a contemporary emperor
who changed the constitution to rule like an emperor.
Police reprimanded the whistleblowers
for their warnings about the virus
as if the virus were under the state’s rule.
A woman banged a gong on her balcony
wailing for a hospital bed.
A pregnant woman’s family gave up the treatment for her
due to the lack of universal health care.
While the materially prosperous state has spent extravagantly
on media and social media censorship,
dissent imprisonment and military parade.
A 9-month pregnant nurse was summoned
to work on the front line to battle the virus.
A team of nurses’ heads were shaved
before they were sent to the epicentre.
Women’s bodies and rights
have been trampled and crumbled.
The authoritarian government
has masked its citizens
put them under siege
glorifying its omnipotence
by turning funerals
into festive celebrations.
In an interconnected world
a virus embodied and enabled by a dictatorship
spreads globally
infects everyone it touches on the earth.
In dark times
be a conscious light
a passionate fire
a fearless voice
a powerful engine for change.
Facing injustice in the world
Anger is your love in the fiercest form
Photo by Yafang Shi Women's March in Washington D.C., 2019
“Women’s rights are human rights”*
“Angry women will change the world”*
“Nevertheless, she persisted for equal rights for all”*
*Slogans of the Women’s Marches.
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