Churches push women’s cause

 The United Church in Papua New Guinea (UCPNG), through its East Central Papua Region (ECPR), launched “Black Thursday” for the church to remember and honour women each Thursday from this year, thus joining “violence against women” fight.

The women’s fellowship ministry of the church initiated the event after its executives attended some international meetings that covered violence against women.

A large group of men and women dressed in black  braved the slippery and muddy road at Kwikila, marching from the police station to ECPR headquarters known as Miracle City, sending out the message to bystanders and those at the market and shops along the road.

Highway traffic came to a standstill as the marching went on led by women and youths from Kalo village in Rigo.

At the ECPR headquarters, emotional plays and songs were performed, reflecting the hardship and pain that women, who are abused, endure.

The wife of UCPNG Moderator Wendy Siai, in the keynote address, challenged men to stop violence against their wives and instead “shower them with love, which was what they needed”.

“It is now time for change in attitude and mindset. Men must respect their wives and love them as they deserve to, not mistreat them. For it is not right before God,” Siai said.

ECPR Women’s Fellowship president Rita Raepom shed tears as she presented her speech, saying she knew women in the area were affected by various forms of violence and believed that the situation would change in the near future.

ECPR Bishop Rev Laka Renagi was given the honour to launch and dedicate the event in prayer.

UCPNG Assembly Women’s coordinator Rev Gloria Marke, who took the lead in initiating the event, shared a brief history of how and why the “Black Thursday” started.

Thursdays in black is a campaign protest that began in the 1970s by groups such as “Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina”. 

These women began wearing black sashes in honour of their friends and family members who were disappearing, being raped and abused.

They would gather every Thursday in silence to protest against the loss of loved ones under military dictatorship, with the aim of raising government’s awareness that these acts of violence were happening in their homeland.

Other groups have developed, including women who wanted to express outrage at the rape-death camps in war-torn Bosnia, and women who oppose the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and the abuse of Palestinians.