WOMEN ' S
MARCH
Women ' s march made headline news across the globe , contributor Reshma Madhi tell us why she marched in London .
For many , Trump winning the US Presidential Election was the final of many final straws of 2016 ( the Brexit vote coupled with the sudden and numerous deaths of many of our music and entertainment legends ). It seemed somehow so unreal . Suddenly we were wondering , how did this happen ? How does someone so bluntly prejudiced and very much a member of the establishment many said they were voting against , get rewarded with winning one of the most powerful seats on the world political stage ? His persona in our celebrity and self-engrossed world is a double-edged sword . On the one hand , he plays perfectly into what people love and hate and divides them on this line . He gets off on the bravado and grabs the world ’ s attention . In a way , I hate that I am consuming it all . I don ’ t want to , yet what he symbolises and what is so unpredictable about him cannot be ignored . Perhaps him becoming the US President has an advantage though . People are rising and uniting . We needed to sit up and pay attention and immediately , the day after his inauguration , there was a powerful response . I ’ ve never protested before . The last significant one I remember was against the Iraq War . I was too young to have known the protest waves of the Sixties or the civil rights movement , yet I inherited the philosophies of those like Gandhi , Mandela and Dr King . Those were generations before mine , it wasn ’ t something my peers were passionate for . I remember an old college tutor of mine saying to our media class how that was the problem with us : we just didn ’ t know how to protest . I remember how we were silent in our response . I wanted to agree with him but I was too afraid to voice my view .
I knew I had it in me though . It even decided what university I went to ( Sussex . I visited the campus , saw someone had desecrated the grass with the words ‘ NO WAR ’ and I knew then that Brighton was where I wanted to go ). Perhaps image was too important . I didn ’ t want to look like some weirdo anarchist hippie stuck in a time warp because who else protested ? What good does it do ? It didn ’ t stop the Iraq War , right ? Although , certain things have been overcome by protest and goodwill . Take civil rights , independence for former colonies , apartheid , the fall of the Berlin Wall . Yes , some of the battles have been bloody and long but there ’ s something about the spirit of people joining together to try to overcome and that seems to have been reignited . Events like # BlackLivesMatter showed glimmers of that sense of not wanting to stand back . I was unsure about going to the Women ’ s March but as soon as I got there , being part of the crowd overwhelming Bond Street tube station and their bewildered staff changed my mind . How had I not been doing this already ? Suddenly I was part of something powerful too . A sea of people from all different backgrounds had come together because they were angry and cared , but it was channeled in a positive way . There was no violence or trouble . Why would there be , at a female led march ?! It was great to be part of something so vibrant . Even just walking , singing , dancing and reading the creative , amusing slogans (‘ Trump is a fart , not a president ’) helped to keep it light . It wasn ’ t grueling to be outside for four hours on a crisp January day , it was an honour to be able to demonstrate that people weren ’ t going to be silent anymore . It was amazing to see how many people had turned out for it and I felt very proud . There was no sense of opposition from onlookers - they looked on proud . Well , perhaps there were some slightly bemused faces but there was a sense of : ‘ we ’ re not just going to accept the way things are heading ’. I was proud to be part of the wave that is rising and uniting . Sure , Trump is still President , but the people have spoken . They represent a growing passion and have hopefully inspired others to wake up too . We need to stand up and unite peacefully , thoughtfully and energetically . What we also need is to be organised ( it was a little chaotic and haphazard going from the assembly point to the actual march ) and to have strong leaders like previous generations that can provide answers many of us around the globe are looking for . The uprisings in the Middle East , Brexit and even Trump being voted President has shown this . Let ’ s march .
Reshma Madhi
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