Woman stabs passengers on South Korea train after being called 'ajumma' - The Straits Times

SEOUL - A 37-year-old woman accused of stabbing three people with a knife on a South Korea subway train said she did so because someone called her “ajumma”, police said on Saturday.

The accused woman, whose identity was withheld, was charged with injuring two women in her 60s and a man in his 50s inside a train headed to Jukjeon Station in the city of Yongin, Gyeonggi province.

Although the word “ajumma” is a casual way of referring to a middle-aged woman, originating from the more polite “ajumeoni”, it has grown to be associated with negative connotations among Koreans.

Women’s studies experts said ajumma is strongly associated with the stereotypical behaviour patterns that are widely mocked in Korean society, including being seen as aggressive and self-centred, or even a perceived lack of femininity. Experts say this is exacerbated by society’s lack of respect for the labour involved in housework and child care.

According to South Korea’s subway police, the accused was speaking on the phone when one of the two women asked her to lower her voice, calling her ajumma, which she said offended her.

One of the victims required surgery, although none of the injuries were fatal.

Officials are looking to charge the accused with inflicting “special violence” on another person. Similar to aggravated assault, this charge can be made when an injury has been inflicted via a deadly weapon or collective force, and is punishable by one to 10 years in prison.

Carrying a weapon also violates Article 42 of the Railroad Safety Act, although the officials did not request charges for this specific offence.

Public use of the word ajumma has led to controversies in the past.

In 2021, then Seoul mayoral candidate Ahn Cheol-soo – of the now-disbanded People’s Party – came under fire when referring to his opponent Park Young-sun of the Democratic Party of Korea as an “ajumma who has an apartment in Tokyo”.

Separately in 2019, a local court upheld the Korean military’s decision to suspend a colonel, saying that his references to female subordinates as “ajumma” had derogatory implications.

Also in 2019, Korea Yakult officially dropped calling its female sales employees “Yakult ajumma”, referring to them as “Fresh managers” instead.

“Whether or not you’re married and have children, it doesn’t really matter. Being called an ajumma means your life as agassi (a young woman) has ended and you are in the territory of unattractive middle-aged women,” said Ms Min Yu-ri, a 47-year-old mother living in Seoul. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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2023-03-05 08:00:46Z
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