This past weekend, two protests were held in Dallas the day before Mother’s Day seeking to highlight violence against women, internationally and domestically.
Weaponized Rape and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia
Over one hundred Tigrayan people from across North Texas gathered outside American Airlines Center to decry ethnic cleaning and the weaponization of rape in the Ethiopian state of Tigray.
The protest comes over six months since the beginning of the conflict which started in November 2020. It is the second sizable protest in Dallas organized by the North Texas Tigrayan diaspora seeking to draw attention to the conflict.
Since early November, the federal Ethiopian military and allied Eritrean troops have occupied the state of Tigray, where they’ve implemented telecommunications blackouts, and allegedly committed a list of atrocities – massacres, rapes, and forced famines. Tens of thousands of Tigrayan refugees have fled to neighboring Sudan to escape the conflict. Millions are estimated to have been plunged into food insecurity, even starvation.
Multiple independent reports allege widespread sexual violence against Tigrayan women carried out by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers. Perhaps most shocking is the report of a 27-year-old woman repeatedly raped by 23 soldiers who forced nails and other items into her vagina. A video of doctors operating on the women was shared with Dallas Weekly.
Hanna Habtu speaks about atrocities committed against women in Tigray outside the American Airlines Center (Photo credit: Steven Monacelli)
Many of the protesters have family in Tigray and are concerned for their wellbeing.
“My mom, my brothers and my sisters live there,” said Haile Wegebreal, one of the protesters. “I don’t have access to talk to them, I don’t know even if they are alive or not.”
Multiple organizations have called for the United Nations to sanction Ethiopia over the conflict. The Biden administration has dispatched multiple aides and policymakers to Ethiopia and surrounding countries to discuss their “grave concerns” regarding the conflict and the humanitarian crisis it has created.
Police Violence Against Black Women
Approximately two dozen people gathered outside of Dallas Police headquarters on Botham Jean Boulevard to draw attention to the deaths of Black women at the hands of the police. The event was organized by The Afiya Center, the only reproductive justice organization in North Texas founded and directed by Black women.
Marsha Jones, CEO of The Afiyah Center, speaks outside DPD HQ (Photo credit: Steven Monacelli for The Dallas Weekly)
Under the piercing sun, protesters held umbrellas with some of the names of more than 250 women killed by police since 2014. They stood amidst mock coffins, chalk-lined bodies and banners which also bore the names of victims.
According to data collected by the Washington Post, Black women have accounted for less than 1 percent of the overall fatal shootings in cases where race was known. Within that subset, Black women, who are 13 percent of the female population, account for 20 percent of the women shot and killed and 28 percent of the unarmed deaths.
“These systems of oppression continue to kill us… There has to be a world that sees Black women…If you hear us, you’ll stop killing us,” said Marsha Jones, CEO and co-founder of The Afiya Center.
Several names were chanted throughout the event, including Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old girl who was shot by the police in Ohio amidst a fight with another young woman. Columbus police released body camera footage of the shooting, saying it demonstrated that they shot Bryant in order to protect the other young woman.
“They quickly released it and quickly excused it,” Jones said. “She was killed by police who didn’t even attempt to de-escalate…you don’t have to kill one Black woman to save another Black woman. How about the fact that all Black women need to be saved? Both of those women could have been saved.”
