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[annaisverige]

The Persecution of Activists at Dongduk Women’s University

Founded by the pioneering educator Dr. Lee Tai-soon in 1950, Dongduk Women’s University was established with the vision of empowering womyn through education in a time when opportunities for womyn were limited. Originally starting as a small womyn’s college, the institution grew rapidly, expanding its programs and facilities to meet the evolving needs of Korean society. Over the decades, the university has maintained a strong focus on cultivating strong female leaders and professionals in various fields, contributing significantly to the advancement of womyn in South Korea.

Womyn’s education in South Korea has undergone a dramatic transformation, particularly in the 20th century. In the early years of the Korean Empire and under Japanese rule, educational opportunities for womyn were limited, with traditional gender roles strongly restricting their access to schooling. However, after the Korean War and during the rapid modernization of the 1960s and 1970s, womyn’s access to education expanded significantly. The establishment of universities like Dongduk Women's University in the 1950s was a pivotal moment—as it provided a platform for women to pursue higher education and contribute to the country’s economic and social development. Today, South Korea has one of the highest rates of female higher education enrollment in the world, symbolizing the importance of womyn’s education, and the impact it could have of womyn’s mobility in society.

On the date of November 4th, the University announced that it would begin opening its doors to male students (co-ed integration). This comes on the tail end of complaints about the decreasing birth rates in the country—blaming womyn for having “too many options” and “losing sight of the family.”

Recently, there has been controversy in Asia regarding co-ed universities sabotaging womyn’s education, and lowering their examinations scores in order to secure apprenticeships and sufficient employment opportunities for the male students.

Since November 11th, the female students protested valiantly using methods like occupying the buildings and offices, crashing the registration website, and reaching out to international journalists to help them tell their story.

THESE TACTICS HAVE WORKED…FOR NOW.

But a temporary victory is not enough. Our sisters in Korea are facing huge cultural backlash against advancements made in favor of female people in law, the economy, and in education. They’re asking us to help them continue to apply pressure on Dongduk Women’s University, until an official decision is made.

Dongduk Women's University has announced it will temporarily pause co-ed discussions as of now while promising it will include students if it were to start discussions again.

The problem is, Korea is extremely hostile to womyn and Feminists. Male supremacist groups and local terrorists have begun tracking and reporting activists to police in order to have them arrested—sabotaging their mission to try and protect their education. They threaten the female students with violence, rape, bombings, arson, and doxxing in order erase them into silence.

The University’s administration even saw fit to coerce its female students for citing financial issues to which these womyn will be vulnerable.

Two men had even snuck onto university grounds, and it is still unknown what their intentions were outside of generally terrorizing the students.

Representative Lee Jun-seok indirectly sided with the men’s groups in a statement to the media, claiming that womyn’s universities are no longer a necessity, and that the female students should be grateful to integrate with males, despite high rates of sex based violence in co-ed universities.

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Please review and amplify the following:

REDDIT — Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3 | Link 4 | Link 5 | Link 6 | Link 7

[annaisverige]

day 120 december 14 saturday, 22:17

I skipped a day again

So yesterday, on friday we had Lucia. It was hands down the best performace I've ever seen in my life. At first I wished I took more videos so I can remember but it doesn't even come close to as spectacular as it was in real life. Amazing emotions all around, brilliant dancing and singing from the choir. After that I chatted with Rio and Erik. Erik was surprisignly cool, he even hugged me as I left. Elsa told me he used to text her freaky stuff before, which I am not surprised by, it really is usually the quiet guys who are the most disgusting freaks. Anyway, then I went home. I was planning on chilling out but I did not manage to do that. I washed all my clothes, sewed up my broken jeans and got to baking lángos! I was short on oil so I had to wait for Pär to come home, untill then I just let the dough sit. I watched the lord of the rings on the big tv in hungarian. I miss it so much, it was really my whole childhood. The lángos actually turned out pretty great, everybody loved it.

Saturday

We had Lucia with the exchange students in Bosjökloster in Skåne. It felt amazing to reunite with Oat and the others, but especially Oat haha. Although we didn't speak much. Qudsia was also there, she is amazing as always. We baked lussekatter and practiced lucia songs too. I had to sing silent night in hungarian, it felt embarrassing but I managed to make it a bit less cringe that I was expecting it to be. I didn't say a word to Emilio, not since a month ago Carmen told me he's in love with me, and had all sorts of feelings for me that not only did I not reciprocrate but also felt uncomfortable with. I avoided him, and I think it worked, he won't bother me again. Although I've decided to go to Danmark with some others in a couple of weeks. We'll be staying at Baji's house in Hässleholm, so it will be hard not to talk to him, but I guess I can do a little talking, that is a good boundary.

Anyway, today was great, there are some amazing exchange students this year, I'm so glad I've met them.

[annaisverige]

Day 117 december 12 thursday, 22:30

Do I missed two days again, I’m currently forcing myself to write these lines. Today was so great, I must tell you about this.

So this wednesday was kind of okay, as I remember it. I missed kultur, since the others had seminarie, so I only had english, history and photo. Stina was sick so I had to to photo alone, I didn’t even do anything since I didn’t have pictures to work with. The task was to edit them, but Stina never sent them to me unfortunately. Today was also okay, first we discussed the last part of Mornings in Jenin. I was grouped with Fiona, Jon and Ludwig. Ludwig was so smart, I loved his ideas, I feel so dumb compared to him sometimes. Also, to my surprise Fiona was interested about how people celebrate Christmas in Hungary, it is very unlike her to engage in any kind of conversation or do anything with me, so I felt very good about it. She’s still not my type of person, we certainly won’t be friends, but it’s nice that we managed to break the wall between us. The only one in the class who doesn’t say shit to me and ignores me on purpose is Thea R. She’s very bitchy, almost certainly on purpose. Nata says she’s jealous, which I didn’t even think about at first, but she might be right. Anyway, the best part about today was the fact that me and Nemo managed to quit the project with Fred and Alfred and we moved to Amanda’s and Philippa’s group. We were on the same level the whole time, we made so much progress, we sre almost ready. Our presentation will be about the death penalty in religions. It was so fun to resarch this, Nemo was also very engaged even though he doesn’t like any type of schoolwork. He also mentioned to me that he loved working with them. I feel the same way.

During lunch, me Iman, Rio and Hailey discussed sexuality. A couple of days ago I would not believe what I experienced today, since I always thought Rio and Hailey were so immature about this topic, since they’re both hypersecual and make rape jokes often. But it was such a mature conversation, I loved that we had it in public and felt no shame about it. I told them that it’s not common in Hungary to sleep around and that I think it’s a good thing, and to my surprise they agreed. They told me it’s crazy to sleep with someone you don’t know or trust, you don know what they’re gonna do or who you really are. I love that I found people with somehow similar values in a place where I least expected it. Iman is such a mature woman. She’s full of wisdom and she doesn’t even know t yet. Most of her values come from her religion, but she’s so wise beyond her years and has great opinions on relationships and sexuality. I love hearing her talk about islam and how she practises it. Her parents raised here extremely well, I hope I get to meet them one day.

Later today me Elsa, Nata and Tea went bowling. Before that, Nata, Elsa and me went to Kungsgrillen and had dinner. It was very good, I had falafel. I also met Islam and his friends, so that was very nice. The bowling was amazing too, I think I came third or something. Tea is another girl from the village I’ve never met before. She was absolutely amazing, so open and kind, a very cheerful person. It was so nice to be around her, I’ve never met a swede like her before, a huge surprise she is!

Today was my favourite day in a long time. I don’t wanna jinx it, but I feel like this is where it gets better, although I’m sure there will be ups and downs, but this is a great way to start!

Tomorrow we’ll have Lucia at school, I plan on going home afterwards if I won’t get to be with friends, but we’ll see

Song for today: Estraden - bra för dig

[annaisverige]

day 114, monday december 9, 22:23

Today I skipped sociology, just as I planned, so I got to wake up later. My bike was by the road, so I had to call Sirkka to give me a ride to the bus stop. I absolutely hate how much it takes to get to the goddamn city, it is downright infuriating, my life would be so much easier. Also, it is so quiet here, just like my village. I would like some more busy-ness, more action in my life, but I didn't get lucky. I guess I have to wait until I can move to a bigger city.

Anyway, on kultur class the others had seminarie, so we could go home. I stayed a couple of minutes to talk to Nemo and then left. Also, we managed to ask the religion teacher if we could switch groups in the presentation, since we ended up with Fred and Alfred, who are impossible to work with. Fortunately, we can probably make it work if we work on the project with someone who doesn't have a group yet, and it will be easier to explain why we ditched them haha. Also, it was a huge blessing how understanding she was, I think she noticed during the class that it was impossible to work anything out with them, it was genuinely the worst hour of my life. Just constant yapping from their part, and Fred being completely ignorant about anything around them. Anyway, I'm glad we worked it out, we've been joking about this with Nemo and Islam. That we should have said in the beginning that we refuse to work with them haha. She understood it perfectly, we didn't even have to lie to her about being racially discriminated by them, an excuse that Isam suggested haha.

Oat also texted me, I was so happy. We talked about the Lucia thing on saturday, he almost forgot. I can tell he's probably not excited. Honestly, his life kind of sucks here, he doesn't even have a permanent family here and lives even further away from school than me, he also has zero friends. I feel really bad for him, he tries to hide the fact that he's not dissapointed in his exchange year, but I can see through him. We used to feel similarily about Sweden and our year, my opinion has changed a bit since I made friends, maybe that's why he doesn't talk about it as much anymore. Anyway, I'm looking forward for saturday.

Songs for today: If I could fly - One Direction

If I were a boy- beyonce

APT - Rosé, Bruno Mars

[annaisverige]

day 113 (or 114?) sunday, december 8 22:40

So I think I totally messed up the dates, but nevermind. A lot has happened this weekend.

So yesterday we went bowling with the whole family: surprisingly Melvin also came with us, even though for some reason he usually is absent from family activities. I came thrid, Stella was second, she was amazing, even though she used this helping thing that basically throws the bowl instead of her haha. We ate thai food before, it was in the bufe in Växjö, which I never heard of before, it was pretty good. You could get as many food as you wanted to, we paid in advance. I wish I knew about it sooner, every worker was thai, I think Oat would have loved it. He came to Växjö a couple of weeks ago with Lisa and they looked around the city with me. I wanted to text him yesterday about the bufe, but I haven't heard of him in two weeks, he stopped texting me. I know this also mean I stopped texting him too, like I could've taken the initiativ, but it just felt weird. I miss him, he's a bit goofy and immature, but he is truly my friend. Last time we met, on the little AFS meet-up two weeks ago, I didn't really talk to him, which I didn't even realize back then, but it didn't feel like he wanted to talk to me either, we just sat at opposite sides of the table, and also Enea kept talking to me the whole time. Maybe I'm just making this up in my head, but it just feels wrong that he hasn't conatcted me in so long. We have been texting back and forth every day for almost 2 months.

So yesterday went just like that, we also watched the Idol finale. Margaux won, Joel came second and Minou third. I was expecting Minou to win, she really had that popstar vibe about her, she had everything Margaux doesn't have. At the same time, I'm glad that swedes go for talent instead of looks, this is definitely a good indicator.

Today, we celebrated Oliver's 20th birthday. We had cake after lunch with mormor and morfar, it was great. Then I walked around with the dogs for a couple of minutes. Oliver also went home soon after, and we said goodbye. He's a very cool guy, unlike most -no actually- all swedish boys, it was great to have him this weekend.

Then I randomly got a text from Rob, and exchange student from Illinois, he came with a different organisation. He's a tipical usa kinda guy, not sure if you know what I mean. He surprisingly knows a lot about Hungary, he's also studying lingiustistics at college home in Illinois, I'm not sure why he's on a high school exchange program hahha. I'm finding it hard to tell if he's sarcastic all the time or no, he's very unserious and goofy. He actually ended up opening up about his struggles in Sweden, and with fitting in. He said he felt like he finally became who he wanted to be before his exchange and trying hard to fit in and being forced to become someone else just made him act unnatural. This felt so genuine, especially because I relate to it. I responded with my experiences. I might have overshared a bit, but I don't know how to act when somebody I don't know opens up in such a vulnerable way and of course because I often can't take him seriously hahaha. Anyway, it was nice to see the human-side of an american, I didn't know they had one. He lives in Stockholm, we'll never see each other, but he's cool, I hope we'll continue our conversations.

Tomorrow I start at 10, I'm supposed to have a sociology exam, but it would be impossible to do it, I don't understand jack shit, it's about Weber's and Marx's theories. A human who understands this shall be on his feet (hungarian expression lol). Anyway, I have sovmorgon tomorrow, yeyy! (swedish expression)

I'll try to keep up with this, but I'm already getting tired, it is nice though to look back how much I've done in just 4 days, I don't think my days were this productive back in Hungary.

Today's song: Southern Star - Gregory Alan Isakov

[annaisverige]

day 112

december 6, friday 23:44

So I skipped a couple of days, sorry about that. On wednesday, I had a crazy headache when I got home, I could not do anything. I had my first photography course that day, it went amazing. Stina and Fiona was there too. On our way, I walked with Fiona and Jon, they were still very rejective towards me, their lack of social skills are truly astonishing. They asked some questions, but they could not have cared less about my answers, Fiona continued this attitude through the whole afternoon. We took studio photos, it felt pretty cool to be in an actual studio and work alone. We had so much fun. There was another girl that I had met before, Favour. She seemed distant today, even though the first thing I noticed about her a few weeks ago when we first met is that she's very easy going. Maybe she just had a bad day. Anthony, Stina's best friend also came along. He's also a very fun guy, he was very friendly with me, unlike most swedes. That's all I remember from the day. The next day, thursday went kind of normally, I wanted to invite Stina to watch a hungarian movie with me in the cinema. It's called without air. It was Therese''s idea to go but she could'nt make it. I however was too lazy to arrange the program with Stina, I kinda hated myself for it though. But I ended up with a headache that day too so it was my intuition not to invite her maybe.

Today, on friday I only had history and swedish. Then I sat with Iman, Abdul and Nemo and had a nice chat. They all got to psychology and I went out into the city shooping. I left my headphones home, so it was pure suffering to walk around without music. I bought a sweater and underwear. Then around 14:00 Pär picked me up on the way home from Alvesta, where he picked up Oliver. He's staying for the weekend. We had pizza for dinner, it was so cozy, we had to light candles since the electricity was out hahha. I then had a 1 hour call with my mom, Peti, Pista and Edina. I complained a little to my mom about guys in Sweden, the dating culture and the emotional immaturity of swedes. I felt like overharing was gonna make me feel weird after but it was so nice getting it off my chest, especially with Edina, since she's a shrink hahah I probably shouldn't be using that word, it kind of has a prejorative meaning. I'm gonna call my mom on sunday too, I hope we can continue this. I might want to start calling her more often, but unfortunately that means my dad will have to join too sometimes. Anyway, I hope it will all work out soon.

A song that Stina recommended me: Big Thief: Stimulation Swarm

[annaisverige]

December 3 22:26

Day 109

I felt very sick at school today again, it might be because of the change of weather. It is really december now, it snowed a bit today but instantly melted unfortunately. Nemo was sick too, he didn't come to school. At english class some of us already presented their presentations. They were all great. Although I was convinced I would do a lot better, tonight when I was rehearsing I trumbled upon each word haha. It's a lot harder than I thought, I might be speaking too fast. That's a general problem for me though, my brain just works too fast.

We went to see Nathalie sing with her music school at 6 today. Some of the students were very young but their skills are very impressive. Nathalie sang the most beautifully, she really is great and I can tell she loves music. Stella and I continued our series of vlogs, which she loves to do. Honestly it's kind of boring, but everything's better than the ipad game she wants me to play all the time. We played the game to the finish one time already but she still finds so much joy in it. It's called Uncle Ahmed, I know it will become a core memory for both of us in the future.

I recently wrote to Folkhögskola in Jönköping. I wondered if they could take me in next year, I'm so interested in how my future turns out. Adult life sounds very lonely, unless I make close friends that I can connect with on a deep level, I don't know how I'm gonna make it. I don't find joy in the things here as much as I did home. I know my life will never feel like my childhood again, maybe that's just what I have to accept and move on. I have this immense feeling of belonging in Hungary. I feel guilty for saying this, and I'm sure if you read this from the far future, you know that it's not the homesickness that's speaking from me now, it is much deeper than that. There's nothing more I wish for, but to find my place in this world, and find something or someone that makes me feel just as home as Hungary does. It really is depressing. I'm more and more interested in what my future has in store for me. As I keep getting lost and lost in it, the more I keep longing for the past, my SSO friends, my friends at Göröcpuszta and everyone from London. I've lived such a great life already, although -and this will be hard to explain- I feel like I lived most of my life in my head. I never shared most of the thoughts in my head with anyone, I lived every experience I experienced in my own way. I actually don't know where I was going with this, I just hope it will be fine with you, I kept wishing myself this and it never worked out. I still have time though.

Praying for the presentation tomorrow.

song for today: Them&I - bathed in grey

[annaisverige]

December 2 22:42

Day 108

So here I go again.

Not much happened today, it felt pretty normal at school. I had a bit of a headache, but it might have been because of my extremely tight underskirt. Anyway, the only thing worth mentioning about my day was the culture class. I spent the last 30 minutes of the lesson reading forward in my book, Mornings in Jenin. We have to read it for our english class. Stina gave me a heads up weeks ago about a particular chapter that will break my heart, and so it did. Amal, the main character lost her husband and sister-in-law to the brutal massare Israelis commited in Beirut. Her sister in-laws unborn baby was cut out of her belly, that part broke me like nothing else before. The most painful part is the fact that this is reality, as I’m writing this it’s happening to someone in Palestine and Lebanon. What is even sadder on my part, is that my father is supporting this. I thought being away from him would bring me some peace, but every day I’m growing more and more hatred for him as I’m getting close to people he despises and would disapprove of me being friends with. I know I can do it though: I can overcome this hatred, I will never be fed this again and nothing else he tried to convince me about.

The belly dance lesson was cancelled today as usual, I honestly was a bit relieved by it, I don’t enjoy it much. The only reason I do it is because I have no sense of rhythm, I suck at dancing or moving in a more feminine way, I hate that I even have to use that word. I don’t feel very sexy nowadays, I feel weak and insecure, I feel like I’m trembling and stumbling every step I make. I shouldn’t even care, this is all men that I want to appeal to. Don’t get me wrong, it feels so peaceful not being pursued by any male here, I don’t crave their validation but seems like the male gaze is inescapable for a teenage girl. There's this guy from Switzerland who's also an exchange student. It's strange even writing this about him, since he doesn't matter, but this is for the future me so I guess I can provide at least a bit of cringe with this story, in case I don't remember it. I remember his eyes constantly laying on me back in the arrival camp, I could tell it was lust, I did not care for it. We only met again on the 5th of October in Sävsjö, at Leif's house. He continued to look at me, this time maybe with a little more admiration then sexual desire. Turns out, he's actually pretty educated on certain topics, he asked me personal questions and seemed interested in me. He's meeting up with another girl nowadays, he was just a bit desperate for a girlfriend after all. I have seen this before, it's always me that ends up being perceived only as an option, or simply something pretty they can treat as a trophy. I am proud to admit that as much as I am longing for a deep love, by someone who truly sees me for who I am, it is not my goal anymore. My safety and mental health is number one priority for me, that I promised myself when I became aware of the hook-up culture and well-hidden misogyny here in Sweden. I will not risk anything for a man. I will try to create friendships that provide the same things I want from a man. I wish I could find a better way to communicate my thoughts, I know I struggled with that when I wrote my journal back when I was 12. This diary will be more detailed, and hopefully much less embarrassing to look back at, although I sure have a lot of maturing to do.

After dinner Stella asked me to teach her some hungarian. She was extremely good at it! She was also very proud of herself and went to tell each word to her parents right away. I am extremely tired now, I'll continue tomorrow when I have more energy to reflect on my thoughts.

Songs for today:

DNA- Tom's Diner

Parno Graszt- Ez a világ amilyen nagy

[annaisverige]

[annaisverige]

December 1

23:38

107th day

A hundred days have passed and I only decided to write a journal today. I don’t know if it’s because of the deep hole that I found myself in then, but I don’t remember much from my first two months here in Sweden and that scares me. Everything happened so fast, I went through a lot emotionally and didn’t have the strength to deal with it.

Today was a relatively warm day, winter seems to arrive in Sweden later this year than in Hungary. I spent the morning preparing for my english presentation on wednesday. I’m speaking about misogyny in Australia, a topic I’m so deeply passionate about. Although I’m a little afraid to speak on this as I find that most swedes are desensitised to issues like violence, misogyny, rape and pedophilia. I am not aiming to generalise, but I’ve met a certain amount of people by now and I’ve made up my mind about most of them. A lot of girls are dating older men, and seem to have no understanding of grooming culture. A week or so ago, one of my classmates whom I considered a friend, Rio said he’s okay with the idea of cnc. In 2024, the idea of a woman being raped in any way, consensually or not should awake a sense of disgust in every human being, but I guess I’m too radical for this country. Anyway, this led to me being unsafe in the class with him around. I hate myself for that, sometimes I feel so weak. At the same time, I’m proud that my safety is such a priority for me. One of my goals right now is to distance myself from them, and every other men.

I’ve made a lot of progress in making friends here. It started out as something that seemed impossible, it felt like everyone was wearing a mask they weren’t willing to take off, and as if I lived in a simulation, a utopia or I was Truman in the Truman show. I don’t know if that is still the case or if I just got used to it. I’m talking to a lot of people in school, none of them seem to be interested in being close friends with me though. Nemo is very good to me, he told me he misses being friends with Thea, who randomly ghosted her last year, that was a very vulnerable moment for him I could tell. I hope he has friends to have these deep talks with him, since I can tell he doesn’t plan on being too close to me or maybe my aura feels a bit unstable and it’s hard to open up to me. All this time I believed he was gay, since he never showed any kind of romantic interest in me, or any other girls he hangs out with, he really is just an amazing guy- he’s so masculine and secure in himself, despite a lot of his insecurities. I told him I thought he was gay, cause I remembered that somebody told me, I regret saying that to him, I really hope I didn’t hurt him, I know he thinks he doesn’t have a chance with anyone, I don’t wanna make him feel more insecure. A week ago a girl in arabic told Islam that Nemo is ugly in front of him. He brings this incident up a lot, it really hurt him and I hate that. I’ve truly never met a better man than him and I can’t believe my first real friend in Sweden is a man, when the second point in my rules was to avoid men.

Stina and I are also getting closer, we decided we’re gonna teach each other one swedish and one hungarian word every day. I can tell she has a strong connection to Hungary and our culture. Therese invited me to see a hungarian film on thursday, that is so amazing, I would have never guessed that they would play one here in Växjö of all places. She’s not sure if she could come though, but I’m thinking about inviting Stina instead, I really hope she’ll be down.

Iman is also a close friend of mine. Sometimes it feels like we’re soulmates, like long lost sisters from another life. She still seems to be more interested in hanging out with Hailey and Rio, even though she often shared with me that she also hates their rape jokes. Avoiding Rio and Hailey would be a lot easier if it wasn’t for Iman, I don’t wanna leave her. I can’t believe I made the mistake of settling with the wrong friend group again, I did the same back in Balassi and I promised I wouldn’t do that again. I was so perpetually lonely when I came here, any sort of human interaction was such a blessing that I didn’t even think about who I get it from, that’s the trap I fell into. I’m much more independent now, I can make up my own mind and I feel like myself again. This has been a long journey, I wish I could start over with this mindset. I know I shouldn’t compare my experiences, but Boldi is the happiest he’s ever been in Finland and I am so jealous. I wish I had the same friends and same love that surrounds him. I’m not surprised he’s so loved though, I still remember how he made me feel when I met him.

I’ve decided to document every single one of of my days from now on, not only for my mental health but also to look back on it years from now.

Songs I’ve been listening to:

Gracie Abrams: That’s so true

Josephine Illingworth: Silent Earth

beaux : I’ll be here when you’re back