Pham Doan Trang shares the challenges and her personal experiences as a woman blogger and human rights activist, recounting the incident of police brutality that led her to permanently injure both of her legs.
- Title: New documentary series highlights the struggles of women activists in Vietnam
- Publish Date: July 1, 2019
- Publisher: Global Voices
Excerpt:
The 88 Project, an organisation supporting freedom of expression in Vietnam, released the first video of an ongoing interview series with female activists in Vietnam. In the first interview with Pham Doan Trang, a dissident journalist and political activist, she discusses the challenges women face as bloggers and human rights activists:
In general, Vietnamese women are not respected. Not only in democracy activism but in all fields. In democracy activism, female activists are disadvantaged because they get attacked no less than male activists. They get beaten and assaulted. The work they do is no less than their male counterparts. But what they often get from other people is pity. I think it is not respect.
She also recounts an incident of police brutality which led to permanent injury to both of her legs.
During a demonstration to protect trees and the environment in Ha Noi, they attacked me and broke both of my legs.
Despite the challenges faced by female human rights defenders both in and out of prison, Pham Doan Trang says that there may be a higher purpose when women are involved in political activism.
In a dictatorship nobody has freedom, but especially for women, their lack of freedom is multiplied many times compared to men. Because women are not only victims of the regime in terms of politics, but they are also victims of gender inequality and self-constraint. Women restrain themselves in thinking that they are not suitable for a political career. That politics are for men.
We should think that our fight is not only against dictatorship or to free Vietnam from a dictatorship. It is also a fight to free ourselves from the ideological constraints from the prejudice that we impose on ourselves until today.
According to the 88 Project database, there are currently more than 200 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam with over 30 identifying as female.
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