If I were: Video

Rapes in war is one of the major issues of sexual violence. Sexual atrocities were repeatedly committed during the recent civil wars in Libya and Congo. Raping women is even treated as a weapon to attack the morale of the enemy. Another typical case has to do with Japan. The Japanese government still denies having committed the crime of forcing women to be comfort women during the Second World War. There is a government official defended the crimes, arguing that such a sexual exploitation system was necessary at that time and women had volunteered themselves to be comfort women. “Comfort women” are even used as mocking words. Comments that rationalize atrocities committed and show no respect to victims are still found. Phoebe Man believes education and knowledge can change people’s way of thinking. Through conducting workshops with Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, she introduced and discussed the issue, released and refreshed young minds on the issue of comfort women by means of creative activities and to trigger a rethink on the current situation in the society. In the workshop, participant were asked if s/he were a Japanese soldier who is in power on another women, a comfort women who wants to express her views on misconception and a spectator who witnesses a comfort women is excluded from her family, what will s/he do? The workshops were held in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The art works of the participants were shown in the exhibition “Art as Social Interaction -- Hong Kong/Taiwan Exchange”. The exhibition invited audience to participate in the exhibition by making art works or giving feedback on the exhibited works, to reaffirm our commitment to protect human rights of women and clarifying our opposition to sexual violence. The video is the documentation of the project.