UK: Revealing the Facts of the Persecution in Leicester on International Women’s Day

I was invited to demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises on Friday 7th March 2003 at an event organised by Leicester City Council for International Women's Day. I have formed a good relationship with a charity that holds activities for Asian ladies, and have already ran Falun Gong classes to teach them the exercises, which they thoroughly enjoyed. It was this group that invited me to the event.

At the event it was clear that a great amount of sponsorship had been received, and there were many women who were attending the event, as well as local media. A very prominent female local MP and a member of the Cabinet was leading a “question and answer” session on concerns of women in the community.

Fortunately, just before another female practitioner and I were about to go on stage to demonstrate the exercises, this MP came and stood next to us. We took the opportunity to hand her some Falun Dafa literature and an exercise video. She warmly received them and told us that she already knows about Falun Gong and was looking forward to seeing our demonstration.

On stage, looking out at the large audience of ladies, I saw faces transfixed on the beautiful and gentle movements of Falun Gong. As I spoke about Falun Gong’s introduction, the benefits received from practising and the tragic persecution in China, the other practitioner performed the exercises. Many of the ladies in the audience were visibly shocked and shook their heads as I spoke of the malicious torture and murder of practitioners taking place in China at the moment.

As we came down from the stage, the MP thanked us and said she had found our demonstration very interesting. We then went to the media room and asked if we could talk to the reporter from the local radio station. When I mentioned that I had given an interview last year to a different person at the radio station, the reporter said that he remembered me and my story. This astonished me, as I had never met him before! Although the radio reporter had a full schedule of people to interview, I was given an interview. The presenter was very sympathetic to Falun Gong and disturbed by the persecution. I was able to talk about the female family members of UK practitioners who are being persecuted in China.

As we left, we handed out leaflets and the organisers were happy for us to put leaflets into the promotional bags that each person was being given as a present from the sponsors of the event on their way out.