Posters for International Women’s Day have been taken down from campus

A number of posters advocating women’s rights on International Women’s Day were taken down almost as soon as they were put up, it is being reported.

Initially, the students responsible for the posters believed it was the university that had taken them down, but when contacted, a spokesperson told us: “A couple of posters that had been sellotaped onto the glass lift shaft in Alex Square were removed as sellotape marks the glass. It’s important to stress that any poster would be removed from the lift shaft. No other posters have been removed that we are aware of and there are a number of posters and banners around relating to International Women’s Day.”

In light of this, it is believed that the posters were instead taken down by students, which the university itself declined to comment on. However, we contacted the group of students that organised the poster display, and asked how they felt about the removal of the posters: “The general feeling of the group has been disappointment and frustration but not surprise.”

“At first we thought the university had removed them, but when we found out that they had possibly been removed by students we couldn’t believe it. It demonstrates that we are right and there’s still a problem. The only purpose of putting up those posters was celebrating women and working towards equality. The message was educative more than revolutionary. We would understand why students don’t want any political impositions, but they also took down facts and important figures of history which held no political meaning.”

Elaborating on the topic, the group told us that the posters being taken down was no shock: “We did the same last year and most of the posters were taken down within the same day. It is just really hard to see how young people, who supposedly know about history and the oppression that women have been, and still are, subjected to, would perpetuate the system of oppression.”

In response to being asked how they believe the university should have handled the situation, they said: “If the reasons to take the posters down was that we put them in places where we were not [allowed] to, we think they should have at least [stopped] to read the messages and see the value that those words contained. Sometimes it’s alright to break some rules to help a good cause.

“If they would have asked us we would have happily [taken] them down once the 8^th of March was done.”

The group concluded: “If the reason to take them down was the message we were trying to spread, the only thing we have to tell them is that we are repulsed by their actions and hypocrisy. They are only hindering the fight and we will succeed no matter what. [Our] grandmas, moms and every [woman] in the world has fought to liberate us, and we will keep on doing the same.”

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