As International Women’s Day was coming to a close, Dafa practitioners held an activity at the square next to Memorial Church in downtown Berlin. The purpose of this event was to let people know about the persecution against Falun Dafa in China and call upon them to pay attention to the ongoing brutal torture, sexual violence and rape against female Falun Gong practitioners. These horrific violations of human rights must be stopped immediately.

Since the persecution started in July 1999, 469 female Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured to death. In addition, innumerable female practitioners have suffered cruel physical and mental torment whilst unjustly imprisoned in jails, forced labour camps or psychiatric hospitals. Some of them were sexually assaulted or raped. In the “2002/03 annual report on violence against women, the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) indicated worries about the persecution that female Falun Gong practitioners have suffered and listed a series of abuses that they are subjected to:

• Stripping their clothes off and placing them in male prison cells;


• Beating them with various weapons and other objects;


• Using high voltage electric batons to shock their vaginas, armpits, mouths, and the soles of their feet;


• Tying them up using handkerchiefs, chains or ropes, causing severe pain;


• Suspending them from the ceiling with ropes, and then exposing them to extreme cold or heat;


• Burning their breasts or facial organs with cigarette butts;


• Piercing beneath the nails with bamboo sticks or needles;


• Pouring pepper or chilli powder into their mouths, noses or vaginas;


• Injecting nerve-damaging medicine, leading to mental disorder or the loss of the ability to speak.