VOA常速英语2013--南非妇女节的来历（在线收听）

South Africa Marks National Women’s Day 南非妇女节的来历

Friday, August 9th, is National Women’s Day in South Africa. It commemorates the 1956 march by 20-thousand women against the country’s apartheid era pass laws. The laws severely restricted travel by non-whites and segregated society. The only surviving leader of that march remembers the struggle for equality not only for people of color, but for women.

8月9号星期五是南非的妇女节。这个节日是为了纪念1956年成功取消法律条文中种族隔离区这一条文的2万妇女们。法律中严格限制了非白种人和隔离区人们出行的范围。那次运动的唯一幸存者回忆说，那场运动不光光是为了不同肤色人的平等待遇，也是为了妇女们的平等待遇。

Sophie Williams-de Bruyn was 19 years old when efforts to stage the march began.

当那场运动正式开始时威廉索菲才19岁。

“Well, South Africa in 1956 was a very polarized country and a very oppressive place to live in. And as you know the laws didn’t allow race groups to live together. We had all sorts of laws keeping us apart. We were all grouped into our own places of abode,” she said.

她说：“1956年的南非是一个分化严重切受到严重压迫的国家。当时的法律不允许我们居住在一起。我们受各种法律的限制，只能呆在自己的住处。”

Whites, blacks, coloreds – these were official government designations to classify South Africa’s population. She was classified as colored.

白种，黑种，有色人种——这些都是当时政府用来区分南非人们的。因为肤色的不同我们被分为了不同等级。

“We were not allowed to mix with one another that much. We had our own buses. They had their own buses. We had our own schools. They had their own schools, white schools. And that kind of thing. So that was the way in which we grew up, in which we lived,” she said.

她还说：“我们不被允许和其它肤色的人呆一起太久。我们乘坐的公车不同，我们的学校也不同，这还有很多。我们就在这样的环境中生活和成长。”

But Williams-de Bruyn said that among all the discriminatory laws, the pass laws were the worst.

但是威廉索菲认为所有的法律中，凭卡出入的法律是最糟糕的。

“The men were supposed to carry a pass and produce it when the police asked them for it. So if you don’t have it you get cast into jail as a man. And this law was now being extended to women. And that was where the women just revolted.”

“那时候男人出行必须带着一张证明卡以便警察核实身份。如果没有，那你就会被关进监狱。现在这条法律竟然用到了妇女身上，这是我们女性所不能容忍的。”

She said women feared the same treatment and humiliation that the men had faced for many years. If the proper documents were not produced quickly enough when demanded by police, a man’s very life was endangered.

女性很怕这条在男性身上用了多年的法律用在自己身上。因为如果当警察来查的时候没有这个证明，那么她们的生命将受到威胁。

“Many of the men disappeared and they were taken from jail to the Afrikaner farms. They had these huge tracts of farmland and these men would be taken to the farms to dig the potatoes, sometimes with their bare hands. A study was made into the disappearance of prisoners and that is where they were discovered,” she said.

“有研究表明当时很多在监狱消失的人都是被带到南非白人的农场里工作。那些白人有很多广阔的土地，所以他们把那些所谓的犯人带到农场挖土地，有的甚至没有工具只能用手挖。”

The various segregated groups had formed their own political organizations known as congresses and they were joined by whites sympathetic to their cause. The women began to organize the march to the Prime Minister’s office in Pretoria. They planned to present stacks of petitions protesting the pass laws. The efforts came to the attention of famed activist Walter Sisulu, who was then secretary-general of the African National Congress.

各个受到种族歧视的人们聚在一起形成了自己的政体（国会），其中还包括了一些白种人。妇女们开始为这次对比勒陀利亚首相办公区的运动做准备。她们计划用请愿书的形式来发对这项法律条文。这个计划吸引了著名积极分子西苏鲁（非洲民族议会秘书长）的关注。

He expressed his concerns for their safety to the leaders, including Helen Joseph, Rahina Moosa and Lillian Ngoyi.

他向那场运动的领导人 Helen Joseph, Rahina Moosa 和 Lillian Ngoyi表达了自己对他们的担忧之情。

She said, “Walter Sisulu asked them – and he was a little bit annoyed – and he said, you women, do you know what you are doing? And Helen and Lillian were nonplused and he says don’t you think you are putting the women to danger? And Helen and Lillian said no, we’re not putting them to danger. And Walter insisted: But what will you do if you are all arrested? Lillian said if we are arrested we know what we will do. We have other leaders in our place. We have a second contingent of leaders.”

西苏鲁生气的说：“你们知道你们在做什么吗？”Helen和 Lillian都被问蒙了，西苏鲁继续说：“你们不觉得你们让女性同胞深陷危险之中吗？”Helen和 Lillian回答说：“没有，我们哪有这样做啊。”Walter继续说：“如果你们被抓了怎么办？”Lillian说：“我们知道自己在做什么，如果我们被抓了，就会有人接替我们的位置，继续为我们的权益斗争。”

However, women did not tell Sisulu all of their contingency plans.

然而她们并没有告诉Sisulu如果她们被捕的话，她们接下来会怎样做。

“The truth is Lillian didn’t tell him the real plan that we had. The real plan was that if the police come for us to arrest us women will all be kneeling down on top of us and they will not be able to arrest everybody. And they will sing and pray. She didn’t tell Walter that part,” she said.

“事实上，Lillian并没有告诉他我们真正的计划是怎样的。其实当时我们想如果警察真来抓我们的话，那么所有妇女都挡在我们前面跪下唱歌和祈祷不让警察逮捕任何一个人。”

The march of 20,000 women made its way to Prime Minister J.G. Strijdom’s office. The four leaders were ready to present their petitions.

2万人的妇女团浩浩荡荡的朝首相J.G. Strijdom的办公区前进。四位女性代表人时刻准备着递交她们的请愿书。

“Lillian knocked on the door. The door was opened by a white clerk. And when Lillian asked to see Strijdom this clerk said that Strijdom wasn’t there. And she said but he should be here because he knew that we were coming. So Lillian took her bundle and she pushed it on top of this clerk. And he was reluctant to take hold of it and so Helen also pushed her bundle on him. So he was flooded with all these bundles and some of them dropped on the floor and the rest of us dumped it on the table and we left. Lillian said this you can give to your boss,” she said.

Liliian敲了敲办公室的门，来开门的是一个白种招待员。当Lillian说要见首相时，招待员告诉她说首相不在。“但是他应该在这啊，他知道我们要来。”Lillian说。说完她就把她拿的请愿书堆放放在招待员的面前。但是招待员并不乐意打开看，于是Helen就把她拿的那叠请愿书也放在他面前。就这样这个招待员就被请愿书包围了，其中有些许请愿书还掉在了地上。等其他人则把请愿书扔在桌上后，我们就走了。走之前Lillian说“把这些给你的头。”

Williams-de Bruyn said the courage showed by the protesters paved the way for women to hold positions of authority.

Williams-de Bruyn说反抗者的勇气为妇女们赢得了权利。

Ten years after the march, anti-apartheid leaders urged her to leave the country for her own safety. She and her two children went to Zambia where her husband, Benny, a target of the South African government, had already been living in exile. While they didn’t return until 1990, both continued their anti-apartheid efforts and had the opportunity to meet Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison. Her husband died in 1999 after a distinguished career.

十年后，反种族分离的领袖让她为了自身安全快离开这儿。她带着两个孩子逃到了她丈夫Benny住的赞比亚。她丈夫是南非政府的目标人物，被充军到这边已经很久了。直到1990年他们才回到家乡，继续为反种族隔离事业奋斗，在此期间他们还见了出狱的Nelson Mandela。1999年 她丈夫在一次任务中殉职。

Williams-de Bruyn has received many honors and awards over the years and has held many prominent positions. She was presented with the Mahatma Gandhi Award by President Mbeki in October 2001.

Williams-de Bruyn获得了很多荣誉和奖赏并拥有了很重要的地位。2001年10月总统Mbeli还给她颁发了生雄甘地奖。

She said that it is time now to pass the torch to the younger generation of women.

她说现在是时候把这个任务交给下一代年轻的女性了。

“Women’s emancipation has not become a reality yet. There are all sorts of good things that have come to women because of what we started and what women before us started. Because there were marches in the early 1913s – hundred years ago.”

女性还没有真正的解放。因为我们前面的女性和我们自己的努力，我们得到了很多我们该有的权益。100年前的1913年我们就为女性权益发起了很多运动。

She added it’s vital for girls and young women to complete their education.

她还说对于女孩和女性来说最重要的就是读书。

“You can say to them the sky is the limit, but from what I know there are more things beyond the skies that they can reach for.”

你可以告诉她们天空是有限的，但是就我所知，她们可以从中学到更多。

To honor those who took part in the 1956 march, thousands of women recreated the event this year with a three and a half kilometer walk to city hall.

为了纪念1956年运动中的人们，成千上万的女性朋友一起徒步走到了3500千米的市政厅再一次重现了当时的场面。