“Dolle Mina is a mindset,” says co -founder Dunya Verwey

At least a thousand people walked on Sunday at a protest march in Rotterdam against Femicide. The demonstration was organized by Dolle Mina, the feminist action group that took action earlier this summer against paid puddles for women in Tilburg, and at an anti-abortion meeting in Amsterdam.

Dunya Verwey (78) is one of the founders of Dolle Mina and involved in the very first actions in 1970, including the storming of the Institute for Business Administration in Nijenrode Castle, where only men were admitted.

Dolle Mina originated as a counterpart of the somewhat more serious man Vrouw Maatschappij, and derived her name from Wilhelmina Drucker (1847-1925), champion for women’s suffrage. A corset burning at Drucker’s statue was one of the first playful actions that drawn attention to equality between men and women.

“Fun actions are the most effective to ask attention,” said Verwey. “We got the storming of Nyenrode overnight Familiarity. Our resources were of course limited, but we had taken a photographer from ANP news agency. The next evening we were at current affairs program Focal point On television. Well everyone looked at that then. “

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In the 1970s you tied ribbons to pee curls, you demonstrated for the right to abortion and for equal rights for women. That is very similar to this summer’s actions.

“I also have a very strong déjà vu. On paper, great progress has been made, in laws and regulations. But in daily life, in the behavior of men, insufficient.

“On the Emancipatieratingating of the World Economic Forum The Netherlands has been diving down 15 placesFrom place 28 to 43. That is typical. Metoo caused a wave, but it lay down again. “

In the 1980s it became quiet around Dolle Mina, was campaigning no longer necessary?

“The first ten years of our existence, we were very active. The 1970s were also a rebellious time, there were examples in America and Germany that we mirrored.”

Verwey tells about a wedding couple, that the Dolle Mina’s in Amsterdam speeches with the wedding poem of Vondel, to which they added sentences about washing, cooking after ‘more sincere faith’ and who removes the hair picking from the sink. About the nafluiting and groups by men on the street -as men did with women.

“You don’t hold street actions that long, but a lot went on in working groups. And for example Marie is getting wiser [een campagne over het belang van vervolgonderwijs] and we women demand [een pro-abortuswerkgroep] built on our promotions. Dolle Mina is rather a mindset.

“We never got away. In 2013, when the Dutch Railways decided not to build toilets in Sprinters anymore, we conducted a wed broomsticks under the flag of the Dolle Mina’s action. With a sheet, and a PO we are building a toilet. I am always talking about male drawing table terror: thinking about place for a laptop, not for a WC.”

She did not demonstrate on Sunday, Verwey broke her wrist: “I can’t hold a protest board for a moment.” She also says: “The current Dolle Mina’s are so motivated and so eloquent about what their drive is.”

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