Women across Sri Lanka join #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse

By APD writer Easwaran

**COLOMBO, Oct. 17 (APD) ** -- Women across Sri Lanka have joined the #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse.

The campaign was kicked off by US actress Alyssa Milano following sexual abuse allegations raised against movie executive Harvey Weinstein.

More than 40 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harrasment, abuse or rape.

In Sri Lanka, actresses, journalists, mothers and young girls posted notes on their Facebook supporting the #MeToo campaign, with some saying they had also faced abuse.

“Me too, over and over again #MeToo If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me Too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem we face. Love and solidarity to everyone saying it and everyone not saying it. We are, each of us, sharing only as much we are able to,” top journalist and mother Marianne David said in a Facebook post.

Mother of two girls, Aruni Wijayaratna said that people always tell her to dress “modestly” when leaving the house, a lesson she has had to teach her daughters as well.

“But apparently, some men don’t care how you dress to feel the need to humiliate and embarrass and threaten women. I’ve had school boys wanting to “give me”, a man following me in a car and “playing with himself, being groped at an office function because “they were drunk and not in their proper senses”. This harassment of women will only change when we stop treating our sons like princes, as is part of the South Asian culture, and teach them about respecting women,” she said in a post on her Facebook.

According to reports, as of Tuesday morning, Milano’s tweet has over 19,000 retweets, more than 40,000 likes, and a whopping 55,000 replies. The hashtag has been used over half a million times on Twitter, and more than 6 million peopleare discussing “Me too” on Facebook.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)