[(Yonhap Photo)]
The death of a 23-year-old woman in one of South Korea's most crowded places has sparked a massive equal rights campaign against alleged misogyny utilizing an explosion of sentiment, sympathy and street mourning from young women and passers-by.
The woman was killed by a 34-year-old man, self-dubbed as a woman hater, on May 17 in the public bathroom of a building near the exit of a subway station in Seoul's affluent southern district better known as "Gangnam (south of the river)" after rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style" went viral.
Security footages circulated on the Internet showed the man surnamed Kim entering the bathroom before the woman's bloodied body was discovered by her boyfriend with the left side of her chest stabbed several times.
Kim, a part-time waiter at a nearby restaurant, admitted he had used a kitchen knife to kill the woman, police said, adding it was a random hate crime motivated by his hatred for women. Kim was quoted as saying he had been despised by women many times.
Police have tried to dispute allegations of a misogynist crime, insisting Kim was schizophrenic with a record of hospital treatment for mental illness. But equal rights activists launched an online campaign calling for better protection of women, claiming the case represented South Korea's deep-rooted sexual discrimination.
Despite a mixed elevation from experts and scholars, women began leaving memorial post-its on the outer walls of a nearby subway station.
Just for several days, thousands of people, mostly women, have joined the post-it campaign to mourn the victim with the walls entirely covered with postings condemning hate crimes against women and calling for a safer society. Piles of white flowers have been left as tributes.
The site has attracted media-savvy people and politicians including opposition leader Moon Jae-in and Seoul city Mayor Park Won-soon. The mayor vowed to preserve the site for street mourning for a while.
Sexual assaults and violent crimes targeting women have been on the rise. A 2014 study conducted by the Korea Women’s Hot Line showed that up to 50 percent of women have been physically abused by their romantic partners at least once in their lives.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.