International Women’s Day 2018 by the AUSMAT students of English

The Australian Matriculation Programme always seeks to provide students with new opportunities to participate in events that support diversity and empowerment. In line with that, for the first time in AUSMAT, a special International Women’s Day (IWD) event was held on Thursday, 8th of March 2018. The short but powerful presentation, brought together by students of the English classes, aimed to bring awareness about gender inequality around the world.

When Dr Sally Param, the AUSMAT English lecturer, mooted the idea of celebrating IWD to her classes, the students immediately took to the idea. Although most of the students were fresh at college (being the January 2018 Intake), they loved the idea of working at a worthy project, and agreed to go ahead with the presentation on the 8^th of March, they rose to the occasion, even though there were only 2-3 weeks to prepare for it.

Thursday, 8^th March 2018 saw the management staff of AUSMAT, together with many of their teaching staff, attend this pioneering event, at Audi 3, Sunway College. A laminated postcard (designed by the students themselves) and a packet of brownies (personally made by an AUSMAT staff) were the surprise door gifts; this helping to warm the hearts of the guests towards the cause of the event.

The event commenced with an opening ceremony by the Director of AUSMAT, Ms. Vanitha Satchithanadan. Armed with rubber gloves, Ms Vanitha willingly dipped her hands into purple paint (purple being the theme colour for IWD 2018), and then stamped her palms onto a purple cardboard that said ‘#PRESSFORPROGRESS’ (the theme for IWD 2018). With the strength of a strong student committee, the English students came up with 5 short items of presentation. A commentary on a sports brand video, a ballet dance performance, and an engaging music video critique were the opening three acts. The fourth item was a ‘male perspective’ presentation, where two male students talked about their own personal awareness of the inequalities women face. One spoke of his mother’s experiences in a country where women were not allowed in public spaces without a male escort. The other spoke of his own involvement in training women in his country on how to overcome sexual abuse. If these stories were not eye-opening enough, the last event of the celebration was. Here, the many international students studying in AUSMAT talked about the inequalities women faced in their own countries. The guests of IWD were informed of the realities women faced in Pakistan, Myanmar and South Korea. This culminating narrative (with very informative slides) by the international students made the 30 minutes of presentation packed with gender-sensitive information. Many Malaysians present were reminded not to take the gender freedom we have for granted.

The reception for IWD was bigger than anticipated, and the unexpected large attendance saw the venue of Audi 3 overflowing with students (with some not having a place to sit). It was a productive and memorable day for everyone who attended the IWD, and especially the students of English who worked so hard to put it together. The latter were especially grateful to Ms Vanitha for allowing this avant-garde experimental idea to be actualised. More than anything, the aim to enlighten and inspire the audience on gender equality had been fulfilled.