Now You Have Touched The Women…
1981
Judy A. Seidman American, born 1951, active in Botswana and South Africa
South Africa
“Now You Have Touched the Women” are lyrics from a South African protest song from the 1956 Anti-Pass Campaign. Pass laws severely restricted movement within the country for black, Indian, and Colored women seeking work or traveling for any reason. On August 9, 1956, twenty thousand women from across the country marched to the union buildings in the capital city, Pretoria, to petition Prime Minister J. G. Strijdom on the issue. Such significant displays of women’s defiance are recognized annually through South Africa’s National Women’s Day.
Screenprint in dark and light green on cream wove paper