Marie Boti is a documentary filmmaker with a dozen films documenting the people's movement in the Philippines. Kababaihan: Filipina Portraits (made with Malcolm Guy) featured the role of the women's movement in the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship of 1986.
She is currently working on a new project with Malcolm, about the political killings and disappearances in the Philippines, including that of Luisa Posa Dominado. Marie is also an active member in the Centre for Philippine Concerns, a solidarity group in Montreal.
Sypnosis: Free Our Sisters! Free Ourselves!
The first Free Our Sisters! Free Ourselves! Campaign was run by the GABRIELA Commission on Women’s Human Rights in 1989. Its goal was the release of Luisa Posa Dominado, an activist who fought against the Marcos dictatorship, and her 7-year-old daughter, Maywan. They were both detained in an Iloilo City jail, with Maywan as the youngest political prisoner in the whole country.
The campaign got wide international support with thousands of postcards and letters mailed from different parts of the world demanding freedom for the mother and daughter. Luisa and Maywan were subsequently released from detention. Luisa continued her work as a human rights advocate and Maywan studied law.
On April 12, 2007, almost twenty years later, Luisa was abducted by suspected military men and hasn't been heard of since. Maywan is heading a campaign to surface her mom. Luisa is one of some 200 forcefully disappeared people in the Philippines since 2001.
Meanwhile, the number of political prisoners in the country has swelled to some 232. GABRIELA has listed at least 24 women political prisoners under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In most cases, these women were abducted, arrested illegally and detained on trumped-up charges. In detention, they suffer inhumane treatment and prolonged incarceration due to long-drawn legal battles.
Such is the case of Angelina "Angie" Bisuña Ipong, now 63 years old, a peace advocate who devoted her life to the cause of peace and human rights. She was arrested in March 8, 2005 and was tortured and sexually abused before she was surfaced to the media. She remains incarcerated at the Pagadian City Jail in Zamboanga del Sur, sharinig a small prison cell with 21 other women prisoners accused of common crimes.
Elizabeth Prinicipe was illegally arrested on November 28 2007 in a busy shopping mall. She was kept incommunicado, tortured and illegally detained by the intelligence group of the Philippine Army until they finally presented her to the media on December 1. She remaines in detention at Camp Crame prison on charges of subversion and murder. She was a consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines during the peace talks with the Philippine government.
Elizabeth's daughter Lorena, has been spearheading the campaign for her release.
The video is in English with Farsi voice over
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Lousnak • Elahe Machouf • Red Names • Shirin • Ms.sun • Looli • Hossein Afsahi • Saeed Yousef • Danielle Ouanes
Hassan Pooya • Soudabeh Ardavan • Setareh Abbasi • Shohreh Kia • Mahbubeh • Payam Akhavan • Shahrzad Mojab
Béatrice Vaugrante • Masoud Raouf • Mostafa Henaway • Stephan Kazemi • Saiid Ismati • Zari Daknema • Antigone
Marie Boti • Felicitas Treue • Bahram Ghadimi • Shokoufe Sakhi • Iraj Mesdaghi • Reza Gahfari • Ezat Mossallanejed