Teenage girls should take over a special day to encourage them to break traditional gender boundaries, develop their abilities and to remind the government to create a friendlier environment for them, a women's group and legislators said yesterday.
Led by the Garden of Hope Foundation, a group of teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 16 yesterday participated in a "flash mob," making sudden appearances in Ximending, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Mall, then at the Legislative Yuan to drum up support for a day of their own by chanting "We want Daughter's Day!"
Foundation director Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said the proposal is designed to call on the public to take girls seriously and stop treating them as the second-class sex.
PHOTO: LUO PEI-TEH, TAIPEI TIMES
"Traditionally, Daughter's Day celebrates a girl's transition to womanhood and wishes them luck in finding a good husband. But in fighting for gender equality, we want it to send a more aggressive message, empowering young girls to pursue their dreams," she said.
Although Daughter's Day already exists, the group called for the day to become officially recognized by the government and celebrated by members of the public. They also said the focus of the day should be on empowering girls and women.
In addition to calling for a new kind of Daughter's Day -- traditionally held on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, symbolizing prosperity -- the foundation also urged the government to protect teenage girls' human rights, which is detailed in the Beijing Declaration And Platform For Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.
Attending the event to accept the petition from the girls, PFP Legislator Li Yong-ping (李永萍), Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄), pledged to support the empowerment of Taiwanese daughters.
"The issue of gender equality needs to be discussed more thoroughly. Apart from a day for Taiwanese daughters, we will push for a gender equality committee in the Legislative Yuan to improve gender equality on every level," Li said.
Chen Yu-ling (陳俞綾), who won the foundation's Formosan Daughters Award for excellent performance in science and technology last year, said that one of the important messages in Daughter's Day is that young women can be successful in what are traditionally considered men's fields.
"I didn't develop an interest in science until high school, because my parents said I should be an accountant. I want to tell them that although I am a girl, I love science and I can excel in the field," said the high school graduate.
Chi said that the foundation looked forward to seeing young girls receive friendly treatment and face no discrimination in school, work and marriage simply because of their gender.
The foundation urged the public to sign their names in support of the Daughter's Day proposal on its Web site at www.goh.org.tw.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
RSS