Digital art: “Rapists rape people not outfits” #RememberKhwezi. Photo: Holaa! Africa
In 2015, a Netherlands based group called Women on Waves coordinated with women’s organizations in Germany and Poland to make mifepristone, known as the ‘abortion pill,’ available to women in Poland, where abortion is illegal. Using drones, they dropped the pills over the Polish border, where women were waiting to receive the shipment. Rebecca Gromperts, a medical doctor who founded Women on Waves, told VICE news “We're always looking for new ways to get through the loopholes of laws that restrict access to abortion." In this case, the loophole was that there are no criminal sanctions to taking the drug; it’s just not available inside the boundaries of the Polish state. By using drones rather than more traditional methods of transporting the drug, the organization was able to bypass restrictive border controls and generate international media attention to their campaign for reproductive rights.
This example is indicative of two global trends that are shaping gender equality and women’s rights issues right now. The first is that as the world becomes more globalized and more technologically advanced, there are powerful new tools for individuals mobilizing a collective voice for change, the costs of coordination have decreased, and the strategies and means of protest have multiplied. Young people (speaking here of youth aged 15-24, as defined by the UN) are particularly relevant to this trend, as they are a growing demographic that’s come of age in a tech-focused and tech-literate world.
