After a year in which girls were banned from education in Afghanistan, mass women’s rights protests erupted in Iran, and a landmark US abortion ruling was overturned, rallies commemorating International Women’s Day were held on Wednesday all over the world.
Protests occurred in numerous cities around the world, including Paris, Berlin, Beirut, Jakarta, Singapore, and others. Similarly themed rallies were organized for other cities.
Manila protesters scuffled with police as they tried to block a demonstration calling for equal rights and higher wages.
The phrase “Girls just want to have fun…damental rights” appeared on a poster.
Protesters in Melbourne called for gender parity in pay and protection from violence. One banner carried the message “safe, respected, equal” at the demonstration. Among the attendees was also a group of Iranians.
Women’s rights activists in Iran and Afghanistan, whose freedoms have been severely hampered in the past year, were a particular focus of the protests.
Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights, and it has been distressing to witness their methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere, Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement released to mark the day.
Protests against the Iranian government erupted into their largest upsurge in years after 23-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in the custody of Tehran’s morality police in September.
As a result of a wave of poisoning attacks that have affected schoolgirls at dozens of schools, Iran’s clerical rulers have come under renewed pressure in recent days.
Nine months after the US Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized women’s constitutional right to abortion, the topic of abortion and reproductive rights was at the forefront of rallies around the world on Wednesday.
Disagreements within the feminist movement over trans rights and the prohibition of prostitution were to be reflected in the competing rallies planned for International Women’s Day in several Spanish cities, including Madrid and Barcelona.
Opposition protesters celebrating International Women’s Day clashed with riot police in Colombo.
Hundreds of people had gathered to protest the high cost of living in Sri Lanka and to urge the government to better protect the rights of women. Sri Lanka is in the midst of a severe economic crisis, which has resulted in skyrocketing prices.
A woman was seen with a sign that read, “End the exploitation of women’s labor.”
On Wednesday, some governments made legislative changes or made promises to mark the day.
Ireland has announced a referendum for November to remove outdated references to women from the constitution, while Canada has repealed historic indecency and anti-abortion laws. Japan has said more needs to be done to change attitudes about gender.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, advocated for more women in business by mandating that all state-owned enterprises have at least one female board member.
Even though Japan improved its standing for women in the workplace from its 2016 ranking of 116 out of 146 countries in a World Economic Forum global report, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno acknowledged that more work was needed.
It has been recognized as a problem that women in our country face a particularly challenging time juggling their domestic and professional responsibilities, he said. “Efforts to address this are only now getting off the ground.”
One of the most widely observed public holidays in Russia is International Women’s Day; however, the head of the upper house of parliament used the occasion to launch a vicious attack on sexual minorities and liberal values promoted by the West.
“Men and women are the biological, social and cultural backbones of communities,” Valentina Matviyenko wrote in a blog on the Federation Council’s web site.
Thus, there are no and have never been any harmful gender games in our nation. The West can try this risky thing out on its own.
