April 16, 2015
The released feminists, from left: Li Tinging, Wei Tingting, Wang Man, Zheng Churan and Wu Rongrong, whose supporters are now lobbying for them to receive compensation and a public apology.
via Reuters
After the Chinese government on Monday released on bail five feminists whose 37-day detention in Beijing had become an international cause célèbre, their supporters in China posted a petition online welcoming their release — and making demands:
The authorities must halt criminal investigations into the women, drop charges and stop treating them as “criminally suspicious persons.”
Financially compensate them for wrongful detention, publicly apologize for their treatment and discipline the police officers involved in the case.
Return to two civil society organizations with which three of the women were affiliated [Beijing Yirenping, which defends the rights of women and of people with disabilities, hepatitis B and H.I.V., and Hangzhou Weizhiming, which advocates women’s rights] any property seized by the police during raids on the organizations’ premises.
Return to the women their property, stop harassing feminist activists, protect women’s rights on issues such as domestic violence and sexual harassment. [The women were detained for planning to distribute stickers and leaflets before International Women’s Day highlighting the problem of sexual harassment in public transport.]
So far, said one petition organizer, who requested anonymity for fear of political retribution, nearly 150 people have signed the document. Organizers plan to mail it to the Beijing Public Security Bureau and the Beijing Procuratorate, or state prosecutor’s office.
But the petition is not the only response by supporters of the women, whose plight drew much traffic on social media under the hashtag #FreeTheFive.
This week, a co-founder of Beijing Yirenping, Lu Jun, who had campaigned for the five women’s release, said he was planning to take legal action in response to a police raid on the organization’s offices on March 24.
One of the detained women, Li Tingting, worked at Beijing Yirenping. Two others — Wu Rongrong, now with Weizhiming, and Zheng Churan — had previously worked at Yirenping. The remaining two, Wang Man and Wei Tingting, had worked for groups campaigning for the alleviation of poverty and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
The women are “all peers and good friends of Y.R.P.,” Yirenping said, using shorthand for the name of its organization. Mr. Lu, however, told the news media that “we do not flatter ourselves that Y.R.P. made any out-of-the-ordinary contribution to the anti-sexual harassment advocacy campaign” the women had been working on.
