MCLC: occupy men's toilets (1,2)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: lily lee <l.lee at sydney.edu.au>
Subject: occupy men's toilets (1)
**********************************************************

It is an issue long been close to my heart. So glad some young women have
the guts and energy to bring it to public attention.

Lily Xiao Hong Lee

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From: kevin carrico <kjc83 at cornell.edu>
Subject: occupy men's toilets (2)

The ratio of men's toilets to women's toilets is far too sensitive a topic
to discuss this time of year!

Kevin

Source: South China Morning Post (3/3/12):

Beijing puts lid on toilet activist
Woman student who says the ratio of cubicles is skewered in favour of men
is banned from leaving capital as security tightens ahead of key meetings
By Raymond Li

Police have barred a university student behind the mainland's Occupy Men's
Toilet Movement from leaving Beijing for the next two weeks, with the
authorities wary of grass-roots gatherings during two key annual meetings
in Beijing.

Li Maizi, who lives in Beijing, organised the movement in Guangzhou,
Zhengzhou and Beijing last month with the help of local volunteers to
protest about the longer wait endured by women due to a skewed ratio of
public toilet cubicles for men and women.

Li, a 22-year-old public administration student, said officers from the
Xinjiekou police station in the capital's central area visited her on
Monday and warned her not to leave Beijing for two weeks.

"They told me not try to leave Beijing during the lianghui," Li said. The
annual meetings of the Chinese People's Political Conference, beginning
today, and the National People's Congress, beginning on Monday, are known
as the lianghui (two meetings) on the mainland. Li said she had to cancel
a weekend trip to Nanjing for the recording of a television programme
about the Occupy Men's Toilet Movement on Jiangsu Satellite TV.

Her travel ban underscores a tightening of security in the capital for the
two meetings.

China News Service reported that more than 700,000 security personnel have
been mobilised for the two meetings and that vehicles from other cities
have needed a special pass to enter Beijing since Wednesday.

The authorities have also banned all promotional and recreational flights
within a 200 kilometre radius of Tiananmen Square until March 15.

Several protesters were beaten up at the Ministry of Health on Thursday
when police tried to disperse about 150 people affected by HIV/Aids who
were petitioning for better treatment and compensation.

The Occupy Men's Toilet Movement was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street
Movement in the United States last year. Women students occupied male
toilets in protests in Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Beijing, while others
carried colourful placards calling for a ratio of cubicles for men and
women at public toilets to be at least 1:2 to cut waiting times for women.

Li said that they had hoped their protests would gain the support of
delegates and deputies at the lianghui, leading to a speedy resolution.
"We simply want to have our grievances heard and we've been nice to our
male counterparts in all ways," she said. "I just can't see what's wrong
with that."