Female lawyers in Guangxi shoulder great responsibility amid epidemic

Female lawyers in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have been contributing tremendously to the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, supporting epidemic prevention and control in various ways with their love and expertise.

Wei Qi, a law firm chief in a county under the city of Hechi, was about to give out masks to villagers when she received a call from local media on Feb 27 asking to interview her that day. "Could you call me a bit later," she asked the reporter.

However, it was unlikely that Wei would have time to be interviewed that day because after distributing the masks she needed to rush to a highway toll station to receive packages of medical materials.

As a matter of fact, her hometown was the major battleground for the fight against the epidemic in Guangxi in early February when five confirmed cases were reported by the county on Feb 6.

Seeing the images of medics wearing shabby self-made protective suits, Wei felt so sad that she immediately initiated a fundraising campaign on social media in order to buy medical supplies from the outside.

Wei quickly raised some 15,000 yuan ($2,161) and managed to deliver the medical materials bought from other provinces and even abroad to the county hospital on Feb 9.

In the city of Wuzhou, Li Yun, another law firm chief who also chairs the local lawyers' association, was making efforts to resume the meetings between suspects in custody and their lawyers, a practice which had been suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

As a result of her relentless effort and great support from the local public security bureau, a video-conferencing system was finally put into service at three police stations, making Wuzhou the first city in the autonomous region to achieve remote meetings between lawyers and suspects.

Female lawyers also draw on their legal expertise to help address issues related to epidemic prevention. 

In the city of Fangchenggang, for example, Qin Qing, also a law firm chief, keenly drafted two legal proposals to help the local government handle such issues as public donations, fundraising activities of philanthropic organizations and purchase of masks from across the border in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, 84 female lawyers from 65 law firms across Guangxi spontaneously set up a legal service group to protect women's rights during the epidemic. They have been working in shifts to address issues concerning the legal rights of women and children via a hot line.

At present, around 2,900 female lawyers across the region are also applying their legal expertise to help numerous enterprises resume operations in an orderly manner.