Andrew Crighton
News Editor
The day after the 2017 Presidential Inauguration marked the first Women’s March on Pocatello event, along with other marches all around the world. In all, as many as 600 sister marches occurred, many of which had massive numbers.
Attendance estimates for the Pocatello march range between 900 and 1,200 people.
Not as much as the national march in Washington D.C. which had approximately 500,000 in attendance, but a lot more than organizers were expecting.
One organizer mentioned during the pre-march speeches that original expectations were for a one-time event with 50 demonstrators, but there are now plans to make it an annual occurrence.
The march was organized as a form of protest and to show protest for equal rights among women and minority groups. The official slogan for the WMOP was, “March for Equality: Our Rights and Nothing Less.”
Before beginning the march from Caldwell Park, two community members spoke to the audience. Mashaal Hijazi, an ISU
student and director of Diversity and Inclusion for ASISU, spoke on the topic of education, or the lack thereof.
Hijazi spoke as, “A woman of color in America, a member of Islam, but most importantly as a human being,” and discussed her views on the education system
focusing on the history of white men.
Focusing on these achievements while glossing over Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and situations like the Japanese internment camps that were located in Idaho has
created a population that simply doesn’t know about the issues of women and minority groups, according to Hijazi.
The second member to speak was Stephen Weeg, Board Chair for Your Health Idaho, the Idaho health insurance exchange. Weeg discussed the issues of the pay gap, experienced by women and people of color and discrimination experienced in
all aspects by women, people of color and those who identify as LGBTQ.
“Forgetting most all of us here today are immigrants, we ask the statue of Liberty to turn her back on new immigrants, especially those persons of color,” Weeg
said.
The march traveled from Caldwell Park to the Pond Student Union Building. All demonstrators used the sidewalk, as the organizers arranged with the Pocatello Police Department. This was done to keep the event from requiring a parade permit. In the SUB afterwards, groups and organizations such as the League of Women Voters held a booth fair. The demonstration was completed peacefully. Demonstrators carried a variety of signs and posters, containing slogans for everything from human rights and gender equality to celebrating diversity.
