With the presidential election slated for December only a few months away, women groups have launched a national campaign tour aimed at revising the Civil Code to abolish the Hojusystem.
Starting from Busan on September 9, the Korea Association of Women United (KWAU) will tour 10 cities around the country on the 'National Campaign Tour for the Abolishment of theHoju System and Creation of Equal Families.' At the same time, the KWAU is also mobilizing '10 thousand supporters for the abolishment of the hoju system' in each region to gather supporters and donors.
The KWAU will collect 10 thousand pebbles with anti-hoju messages from the supporters written on the stones. The 'tree of hope for the abolishment of the hoju system' will be planted in vases filled with these pebbles. The KWAU is planning to send these vases to National Assembly officials such as the Speaker, Chair of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Chair of the Women's Committee, and each political party's presidential candidate and representative, in order to get these politicians to promise to abolish the hoju system. The vases will be presented to the politicians in mid-October after the KWAU concludes its national campaign tour on October 5.
In explaining the background to the national campaign tour, Lee Gu Gyeong Sook, KWAU's chief of policies, explains, "In the four years since women groups launched the anti-hojucampaign in earnest, public consensus for the abolishment of hoju has exceeded 50%, but the National Assembly that is actually responsible for revising relevant laws is showing no move to do so, becoming an obstacle to the anti-hoju campaign."
Through the campaign tour, KWAU plans to appoint civilian anti-hoju envoys in each region to hold talks with the local residents and apply for interviews with the assemblyman in each constituency. The campaign will also host a variety of events such as a musical entitled 'A Happy World for Daughters' (performed by art troupe Orum), street marches, making name tags with both parents' surnames, card sections and so on.
If you wish to become a supporter, you can apply on the site when the campaign is touring your city, or apply on-line at no-hoju@women21.or.kr by providing your name, gender, age and address.
