——“三八妇女节” 写给中国受压迫女性的一点纪念

作者：冯仍 编辑：黄吉洲 校对：程筱筱

又到“三八国际妇女节”。在正常国家，这本来应该是一个尊重女性、感谢女性、为女性争取平等权利的日子。但对我这样一个从中国逃出来、如今流亡在美国的中国人来说，每到这一天，我心里想到的却不是鲜花、祝福和热闹，而是那些在中国大陆和香港，因为说真话、维权、参政、纪念历史、追问真相，而遭到打压和迫害的女性。

这些女性里面，有记者，有律师，有母亲，有学者，也有普通公民。她们并没有做什么伤天害理的事，她们很多人只是想讲一句实话，讨一个公道，守住一点做人最基本的良知。可就是这样，她们却被抓捕、被判刑、被长期羁押，被羞辱，被监控，有的人甚至失去了健康，失去了家庭，失去了自由。这样一个现实，实在让人心里沉重。

我自己也是一个中国流亡者。过去在中国的时候，因为中共长期的信息封锁，因为网络高墙，因为对言论的严密控制，很多事情我们根本不知道，或者知道得很少。那时的我，也和很多中国人一样，只能活在一个被筛选过、被扭曲过的世界里。来到美国以后，我才慢慢知道，原来这些年有这么多中国女性，在黑暗中承受了那么大的代价。她们替这个民族说出了真话，也替这个民族承受了本不该由她们承受的苦难。

这些年来，公开可见的案例已经很多。像张展，因为去武汉独立报道疫情真相，被中共判刑；黄雪琴，因为长期关注女权和社会公共议题，被重判五年；李翘楚，因为持续发声，被以“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”判刑；何方美因为替疫苗受害儿童家庭维权，最后也遭到重判。还有更早一些的曹顺利、倪玉兰、高瑜等，她们的遭遇都说明一个问题：在中共治下，女人只要不甘心做沉默者，只要敢站出来说一句不一样的话，就随时可能成为被打击的对象。

香港的情况也是一样。过去很多人以为香港还有空间，还有法治，还有表达的自由，可是这几年大家都看得很清楚了。《港区国安法》实施后，很多香港女性也成了政治迫害的受害者。邹幸彤因为坚持纪念六四、坚持发声，被长期关押；何桂蓝因为参与民主初选被定罪；周庭、毛孟静等人，也都因为和平参与公共事务而付出了沉重代价。还有一些流亡海外的香港女性倡议者，连人在海外都仍然被通缉、被威胁，甚至家属都受到牵连。这样的政权，已经不是简单地打压异见，而是把一切不顺从、不配合、不沉默的人，都当成敌人。

让我感到特别沉痛的是，中共对女性的迫害，很多时候不只是一般意义上的政治打压，而是带着一种更阴冷、更残忍的特点。它不仅要剥夺你的自由，还要羞辱你、摧毁你、孤立你，让你在身体、精神、家庭、孩子这些方面都付出更大的代价。对女性来说，这种迫害常常更深，更痛，也更让人看清这个制度的邪恶。一个真正自信、真正文明的国家，不会把说真话的女人当成威胁。只有一个极度虚弱、极度恐惧的专制政权，才会连一个记者、一个母亲、一个普通维权者都害怕。

作为一个男人，作为一个丈夫，也是一个父亲，我每想到这些事情，心里都很难平静。因为我知道，女人不是一个抽象的词。女人就是我们的母亲、妻子、女儿，是家庭里最能忍耐、最有担当、也最容易默默承受痛苦的人。如果一个社会连自己的女性都保护不了，反而去压迫她们、侮辱她们、毁掉她们，那这个社会还有什么文明可言？如果一个政权口口声声讲妇女解放，讲男女平等，结果却把敢于发声的女性送进监狱，把坚持追问真相的女性当成“危害国家安全”的对象，那这套宣传就完全是一种无耻的政治表演。

今天我人在美国，离中国已经有一段距离了。但也正因为离开了那个环境，我反而更能看清，中国最值得尊敬的一批女性，往往不是那些站在宣传舞台上的人，而是那些在压力之下仍然没有放弃良知、没有放弃说真话的人。她们也许没有头衔，没有掌声，甚至没有多少人知道她们的名字，但她们的坚持本身，就是对谎言最有力的揭露。

我常常想，如果没有这些女性，中国社会会更加黑暗。因为正是她们，在最危险的时候站出来；在别人不敢说话的时候开口；在历史被掩盖的时候坚持记住；在整个社会都被恐惧压住的时候，仍然不肯完全低头。她们用自己的苦难，照出了这个制度的本相；她们用自己的代价，让世界知道中共所谓的“稳定”“和谐”“妇女解放”到底建立在什么之上！

所以，在这个所谓的“三八妇女节”，我更愿意把纪念留给这些真正受苦、真正勇敢的中国女性。她们不是节日宣传里的符号，不是口号里的点缀，也不是官方拿来装点门面的“妇女代表”。她们是中国苦难现实中的亲历者，是强权之下没有低头的人，是这个民族还没有彻底麻木的证明。

我写下这篇短文，也是想表达一个最简单的意思：今天纪念中国妇女，不能只讲鲜花和赞美，不能只讲成功和风光，更不能在中共制造的节日气氛中假装一切都很好，真正值得被纪念的，是那些因为坚持良知而被迫害的女性，是那些在监狱里、在看守所里、在监控之下、在流亡路上，仍然没有放弃尊严的人。

她们的苦难，不该被节日掩盖。她们的名字，不该被沉默吞没。她们的勇气，也不该只停留在少数人的记忆里。

愿有一天，中国的妇女节不再带着压抑和眼泪，不再有那么多女人因为说真话而坐牢，因为追求公义而受罚，因为坚持尊严而被毁掉人生。到了那一天，中国妇女才算真正迎来了属于自己的节日。

Their Suffering Must Not Be Covered by a Holiday— A Brief Tribute on International Women’s Day to Oppressed Women in China

Author: Feng RengEditor: Huang Jizhou       Proofreader: Cheng Xiaoxiao     Translator: Peng Xiaomei

Abstract:On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the author pays tribute to women in China and Hong Kong who have been persecuted for defending rights and speaking out. Their suffering and courage, the author argues, must not be concealed beneath the atmosphere of celebration, and their sacrifices for truth and dignity must be remembered.

International Women’s Day has come again. In a normal country, this should be a day to respect women, thank women, and fight for women’s equal rights. But for someone like me—a Chinese person who escaped from China and now lives in exile in the United States—what comes to mind on this day is not flowers, greetings, or festivity. What I think of are the women in mainland China and Hong Kong who have been repressed and persecuted for telling the truth, defending rights, participating in public affairs, commemorating history, and demanding the truth.

Among these women are journalists, lawyers, mothers, scholars, and ordinary citizens. They did not commit any monstrous crime. Many of them merely wanted to speak one honest sentence, seek one measure of justice, and hold on to the most basic conscience that a person should have. Yet for this, they were arrested, sentenced, detained for long periods, humiliated, and monitored. Some even lost their health, their families, and their freedom. Such a reality weighs heavily on the heart.

I, too, am a Chinese exile. When I was still in China, because of the Chinese Communist Party’s long-term information blockade, the Great Firewall, and its tight control over speech, there were many things we simply did not know, or only knew very little about. At that time, like many Chinese people, I could only live in a world that had been filtered and distorted. It was only after I arrived in the United States that I gradually learned how many Chinese women had endured such enormous suffering in the darkness over these years. They spoke the truth for this nation, and they bore suffering that should never have fallen upon them.

Over the years, many public cases have become visible. Zhang Zhan was sentenced by the CCP for independently reporting the truth about the pandemic in Wuhan. Huang Xueqin, who had long followed feminist issues and public affairs, was sentenced to five years. Li Qiaochu, for her continued public speech, was sentenced on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” He Fangmei, who fought for families of children harmed by vaccines, was also heavily sentenced in the end. There are also earlier figures such as Cao Shunli, Ni Yulan, and Gao Yu. Their experiences all point to one fact: under CCP rule, as long as a woman refuses to be silent and dares to step forward and speak differently, she can at any moment become a target of repression.

The situation in Hong Kong is the same. In the past, many people believed Hong Kong still had room for freedom, still had rule of law, still had freedom of expression. But over the past few years, everyone has seen clearly what has happened. After the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law, many Hong Kong women also became victims of political persecution. Chow Hang-tung was imprisoned for persisting in commemorating June Fourth and continuing to speak out. Gwyneth Ho was convicted for participating in the democratic primary. Agnes Chow and Claudia Mo, among others, have also paid a heavy price for peacefully participating in public affairs. There are also Hong Kong women activists in exile overseas who remain wanted, threatened, and even see their families implicated. Such a regime is no longer merely suppressing dissent. It treats all those who do not obey, do not cooperate, and do not remain silent as enemies.

What pains me especially is that the CCP’s persecution of women is often not merely political repression in a general sense. It carries something colder and crueler. It seeks not only to deprive you of freedom, but to humiliate you, break you, and isolate you, making you pay a higher price in your body, your spirit, your family, and your children. For women, this persecution often goes deeper, hurts more, and more clearly reveals the evil of this system. A truly confident and truly civilized country would not regard women who tell the truth as threats. Only a deeply fragile and deeply fearful authoritarian regime would be afraid even of a journalist, a mother, or an ordinary rights defender.

As a man, as a husband, and also as a father, I find it difficult to remain calm whenever I think about these things. Because I know that women are not an abstract word. Women are our mothers, wives, and daughters. They are often the ones in a family who are most enduring, most responsible, and most likely to suffer in silence. If a society cannot even protect its own women, but instead oppresses, humiliates, and destroys them, then what civilization can it still claim to have? If a regime constantly speaks of women’s liberation and gender equality yet sends outspoken women to prison and labels women who insist on pursuing truth as threats to national security, then this propaganda is nothing but a shameless political performance.

Today I am in the United States, already some distance away from China. Yet precisely because I have left that environment, I can see even more clearly that the women most worthy of respect in China are often not those who stand on propaganda stages, but those who, under pressure, still refuse to abandon conscience and refuse to stop telling the truth. They may have no titles, no applause, and perhaps very few people even know their names, but their persistence itself is the most powerful exposure of lies.

I often think that without these women, Chinese society would be even darker. Because it was they who stepped forward at the most dangerous moments; who spoke when others dared not speak; who insisted on remembering when history was being buried; who still refused to bow completely when the entire society was pressed down by fear. Through their suffering, they illuminated the true face of this system. Through the price they paid, they let the world see what the CCP’s so-called “stability,” “harmony,” and “women’s liberation” are built upon.

So on this so-called International Women’s Day, I would rather dedicate my tribute to these truly suffering and truly courageous Chinese women. They are not symbols in holiday propaganda, not embellishments in slogans, and not “women’s representatives” used by officials to decorate their image. They are witnesses to China’s painful reality, people who did not bow under power, and proof that this nation has not yet become completely numb.

I write this short essay simply to express one very basic thought: to commemorate Chinese women today, we cannot speak only of flowers and praise. We cannot speak only of success and glamour. We certainly cannot pretend, in the festive atmosphere created by the CCP, that everything is fine. What truly deserves remembrance are the women persecuted for upholding conscience; the women in prisons, detention centers, under surveillance, and on the road of exile, who still have not given up their dignity.

Their suffering must not be covered by a holiday.Their names must not be swallowed by silence.Their courage must not remain only in the memory of a few.

May the day come when Women’s Day in China is no longer burdened with repression and tears, when no more women are imprisoned for speaking the truth, punished for pursuing justice, or have their lives destroyed for defending dignity. Only then will Chinese women truly have a holiday that belongs to them.