Women fume as Palace official calls marchers a ‘mob’

Santo Domingo.- Dozens of women from more than 20 feminist groups were riled during a march to the National Palace Tuesday, when a senior official referred to them as "mobs."

The marchers set off from Independencia Park to mark International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and in rebuke of the amendment to the Criminal Code passed by Congress.

The organizers delivered a document stating their concerns, complaints and recommendations to president Danilo Medina to deal with the violence women experience in the country, which they describe as extreme.

Presidency deputy minister Henry Molina had to go to the front of the Palace to receive the document, delivered by the women, who surrounded by a police, mostly female agents.

Gaffe

But prior to Molina’s appearance, a committee of women entered the National Palace to deliver the document, but left annoyed without doing so, after feminist leader Sergia Galván accused the official of referring to the marchers as "mobs."

Galvan aid that was the reason they left, after having undergone “institutional violence and state violence."

“Dominican women face many obstacles and difficulties to fulfill our human rights in keeping with the Dominican Constitution, regarding equality, personal integrity and freedom from violence," added the head of the Women and Health Collective.