<![CDATA[Racked with guilt: Philippine exhibition displays clothes worn by sexual assault victims to highlight culture of victim-blaming]>

The Don't Tell Me How to Dress (DTMHTD) exhibition, which began on Friday " International Women's Day " at a mall in Taguig City, also presents harrowing testimonies from 11 girls and women together with the clothes they were wearing when they were targeted.

Maica Teves, executive director of Spark, a women's empowerment organisation that is one of the event's organisers, said the survivors of sexual violence featured in the exhibition came from diverse backgrounds.

"One outfit belonged to a woman who was working as a gallery assistant " she was raped by her professor in the gallery. Another was a 15-year-old who was molested by her stepfather.

"The four-month-old infant was sleeping at home when someone inside the family compound " a suspected family member " abducted the baby. The baby was later found alone in a coconut field beside a bottle of wine, with signs of being sexually abused."

Meanwhile, outside, 4,000 protestors took to the streets of Manila for the nation's annual International Women's Day march held in conjunction with DTMHTD. Protestors decried sexual violence against women, as well as the country's president Rodrigo Duterte for his sexist remarks and alleged misogyny.

The Philippines may be one of the most gender equal places in the world when it comes to economic and political opportunities, according to a recent World Economic Forum report, but many women are still being subjected to sexual harassment and assault.

A 2016 report by the Centre for Women's Resources, a Filipino NGO, found that a woman or child is raped every 53 minutes in the country.

In Quezon City, the most populated city in Metro Manila, three in five women have experienced sexual harassment, according to a 2016 report by Philippines-based research firm Social Weather Stations.

In the same survey, one in seven respondents said they experienced sexual harassment at least once a week, and 58 per cent of incidents took place in public areas such as on the streets or public transport.

Teves said the country's high ranking in gender equality can be attributed "to the fact that we've had two female presidents, female senators, congresspeople".

But when it comes to the treatment of women, the Philippines is comparable with Thailand, especially in its culture of victim-blaming, Teves said.

"In the Philippines there's still a stigma regarding women who are survivors," she said.

Teves recalled a high-profile case last year when a Filipino woman was gang-raped by friends of her boyfriend.

"Shortly after the incident, a host berated her on TV, saying 'you were raped because you were out with your boyfriend, you were drinking, and you were wearing short shorts'," she said.

The culture of "machismo populism", embodied by the likes of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has made off-colour comments about women, has not helped, commentators say.

Teves cited the speech Duterte gave in December, when he spoke about molesting his maid as a teenager.

"It was something that started the conversation again," she said. "When I saw the video clip and I could see people laughing at his speech, it saddened me. Here we are running this Metoo-related movement and you have a president making comments like this. It's not normal."

The DTMHTD exhibition was launched last November and has since been staged in different cities in the Philippines, sparking discussions about the country's victim-shaming culture.

A post shared by Cindy Sirinya Bishop (@cindysirinya) on Mar 22, 2018 at 12:56am PDT

Thai personality Sirinya Bishop. Photo: Facebook

Thai-American model Cindy Sirinya Bishop released a viral video in response to the guidelines, sparking a movement on social media which later turned into a photography and art exhibition featuring the testimonies and clothing of survivors.

So far, the Philippines' DTMWTD exhibition " organised by Spark and a host of other partners, including the UN Women Safe Cities Metro Manila Programme " has struck a chord with some women.

"I saw DTMHTD all over my Facebook feed when it first launched," said a 21-year-old college student in Manila. "A lot of people are commenting on it ... more in support of the issue than against it.

"We women are really told by people, sometimes even by our families, to dress appropriately to avoid being harassed," she said, adding that her parents have warned her to refrain from wearing shorts in public to avoid being groped or raped.

For others, the positive reception around DTMHTD is a sign the Philippines is ready for more "complex, uncomfortable" conversations around misogyny and rape culture.

While #MeToo movements have emerged in different industries and communities such as entertainment and religion, it has yet to reach critical mass.

"Violence against women happens on a spectrum," said Marla Darwin, a co-founder of Grrrl Gang Manila, a feminist collective. "From everyday occurrences [such as] getting catcalled, groped, touched ... then if you go on a deeper level, abuse within relationships is very high."

The absence of conversations around consent creates avenues for abusers to target victims, Darwin said.

"In our country, nobody is conditioned to talk about sex [and] consent " when it's not being talked about, it opens up all these power dynamics for abuse."

One of the solutions is to have more honest conversations in public forums, she said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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