Mahathir Mohamad's wife, Siti Hasmah, addresses crowd and condemns violence against women.
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The participants, mostly women, gathered around the compound of Maju Junction Mall along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman from as early as 4.30pm today.
But the rally began about 5.30pm.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and wife Dr Siti Hasmah Ali made an appearance at the event.
Rally-goers took the chance to take selfies with Mahathir.
Before the march started, Siti Hasmah gave a speech to the crowd from the back of a four-wheel vehicle, calling on women to play their role in stopping “toxic politics” in the country.
“Women love peace and stability so that they can live a stable life.
“However, we can see that there is violence against women and it is violating our rights.”
Siti Hasmah also took jibes at the infamous David Teo slapping incident, which took place in May at a forum.
“Back in the old days, no one could be slapped easily at public events,” she said, adding women should voice out against such incidents.
Teo, a local movie producer, was slapped by actor Sulaiman Yassin, better known as Mat Over, for allegedly insulting Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Teo had wanted to ask the PM questions during a Transformasi Nasional 50 (TN50) dialogue session at the PM’s official residence in Putrajaya on May 17. The incident happened in front of Najib.
Siti Hasmah added that it was time to cleanse the “toxic” nature from people as it was a bad habit.
Noor Farida Ariffin, a spokesman for G25, an NGO made up of prominent Malays, told participants to reject candidates standing in the coming general election who practised sexism against women.
“Bring back the civility. We do not want people who are poisoning society,” she said.
The rally ended at 6.30pm and the crowd of 1,000 people stopped marching in front of Pertama Complex.
Speaking to reporters after the rally, Bersih chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, who was one of the organisers of the “Women Against Toxic Politics” with 30 fellow activists, said they organised the rally to voice out their dissatisfaction over unfulfilled promises by the government.
“Violence against women is still rampant, the child marriage problem has yet to be solved and laws are increasingly repressive,” she said.
She said she was happy 1,000 people had turned out today and said this indicated that women wanted their voices to be heard on many issues.
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