by dula
Ethiodemocrat.com
Yellow Hijab, Symbol of Resistance
With their beautiful attire and Hijab on the head, Ethiopian Muslim women
surprised Woyanes and everyone in Houston on Sunday, April 14, 2013.
Instead of usual cordial and subservient Ethiopian woman, who were often
absent from such rallies, Woyane Ambassador was confronted with
assertive, and bold Ethiopian women, who at last understood the damage
the regime has done to their people regardless of where they hail from.
Unlike
in the past the conference was packed, but the Woyane Ambassador might
have thought the Muslim audience was his usual allies of the past from
Tigre or some allies from the South. To his surprise, he faced a
different class of Ethiopian women who at last decided to face the
Woyane beast head on.
The Woyane amassed security, for protection,
and to silence the opposition, despite such preparation and the
presence of such force, the Ethiopian women refused to be silenced and
refused to be kicked out of the audience even after the Woyanes urged
the police to do so.
The new face of Ethiopian resistance was no
more men with jackets, and pants, but Ethiopian women with Hijab. With
their coordinated attire, the women filled over half of the audience,
showed their protest banners demanding the release of political prisoner
and more.
The Ethiopian community in Houston showed up inside the
conference room and on the streets in force to demonstrate its
displeasure with the Woyane Ambassador from Washington. After months of
advertising and promotion, the Woyane Ambassador Girma Biru showed up to
collect funds for the Abay Dam, believing his cadres in Houston sold
the idea with an ironclad confidence. At the beginning, Houstonians gave
the Ambassador the benefit of the doubt to tell his version
of the Woyane story and about the Abay Dam. At the beginning, the
confident Ambassador narrated the importance of the dam to Ethiopia and
how the Woyanes are pulling Ethiopia out of it darkness, while this
assertion is highly debatable and probably patently false.
To the
surprise of the Ambassador and many Ethiopians, almost half of the
audience was women of the Islamic faith. The turnout was beyond any ones
expectation; the conference room was packed and some people were forced
to stand up. Besides filling the conference with their beautiful attire
and yellow Hijab, the Ethiopian women put the Woyane cadres to the task
repeatedly raising the plight of their brethren and forcing the police
to ask some of them to leave. However, the women would not have it and
refused to budge, and the police were forced to back down as the
audience turned to their defense.
To his credit, the Ambassador agreed to answer
all questions at the end despite his Woyane handlers’ recommendation
that all questions be submitted in advance in writing so that they can
dictate which questions to be asked or not to be asked. The audience
protested to Woyane handlers’ recommendation and the Ambassador relented
and took questions from the audience. Unfortunately, he was unable to
give straight answers as the audience was looking forward, and the
conference degenerated into chaos and the police were called in
intervene a few times.
Another surprise to Woyane and other
Ethiopians, most of the audience turned to be from the opposition. When
the room was cleared off all the protestors, only small groups of people
were left with the Ambassador.
As the meeting become unruly, the
ambassador decided to call of the meeting and the Ethiopians audience
starting singing “Woyane Leba” and Lelaba Genzeb Ansetim”
When the
Ambassador cancelled the meeting, he urged those Woyane supporters
stayed afoot to make their contribution. However, an awe struck
Ambassador was left with an empty room of few supporters and Woyane
cadres who organized the meeting. This should have been the most
humiliating moment for him: seeing empty conference full of Police and Woyane cadres.
The
demonstration continued outside the building and on the streets to make
sure that the Ambassador did not leave without more humiliation and
embracement and to make sure that he tells his masters in Ethiopia that
the table has turned against them and the rumbling of the new freedom
fighters, Ethiopian women with hijab. It should be very clear to Woyanes
that the days of using religion and tribe are no more marketable as
more people are becoming more aware of the damage the Woyane system has
caused to every Ethiopians in the last 21 years.
While many in the
audience have no problem with the construction of the dam, but they are
keenly aware of what Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN,
the U.S. Department of State, and Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) have documented about the human rights violations committed by the
incumbent regime. Using the Federal Police regularly intimidates and
kills at will on streets, schools, churches and mosques, as it has done
just recently in Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa and in various cities
throughout Ethiopia.
Many Ethiopians are aware of the overwhelming
evidence about the tyrannical situation in Ethiopia and all believe
that it went too far and for too long. The end of the Woyane appears
imminent whether they realize it or not; the rising tide of resistance
fueled by the unwarranted religious interference and oppression is
unstoppable.
The yellow Hijab, a symbol of resistance adopted by
the Ethiopian Muslims, will accelerate the downfall of the Woyanes, and
restore nationalism and unity, missing for the last 21 years.
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