March 8 - Day for Women's Rights and International Peace

nPosted on March 8, 2019

Key points

nThe thing about worldwide or international holidays is that they’re not called the same thing in all nations (even allowing for translation), let alone not being celebrated in the same way. Today’s a great example:

The United Nations has established March 8 as International Women’s Day (see link below, in the “Also on this date” section). A lot of nations celebrate the day as Mother’s Day on March 8 – including Belarus, Bulgaria, Burundi, Burkina Faso, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, just to name the “B”s. I think that’s a bit unfair, since even though we all have a mother to honor (although not all of our mothers are alive or even known to us) – BUT not all women are mothers! And I think that all women should be honored on Women’s Day!

In some places International Women’s Day is not a day of celebration. Instead, it’s a day of protest! Some nations or populations agitate for women’s rights on Women’s Day.

nI think it’s pretty obvious – given the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, and the renewed call for the ERA in the United States – that we need a Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace more than ever before!

nHere are some ways in which women are repressed around the world:

nIn Saudi Arabia, all women and girls must have a male guardian – typically a father, brother, husband, or uncle – and women need their guardian’s permission in order to travel, get married, get divorced, enroll in a school, open a bank account, get elective surgery, or work outside of the home.

In Saudi Arabia, the ban on women driving was finally lifted in 2018!

In some South Asian nations, acid attacks on women (in which sulfuric or nitric acid is thrown at a woman’s face with the intent to disfigure or maim or even blind her) has become more and more common, when a woman turns down romantic advances, or seeks romance, or even wears her veil “too loosely.” (Acid attacks also victimize many men.)

nIn Cameroon and other nations, many girls entering puberty are subjected to breast ironing, and female genital mutilation is distressingly common in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. These practices are cruel and painful and end up causing the victims to have a variety of problems as they grow up and try to start families.

nIn Sudan women are arrested for such things as exposing their hair, wearing pants or trousers, or riding in a car with someone of the opposite sex.

nIn some Latin American countries, such a the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, many young girls are forced to marry older men.

Honduras outlawed child marriage in 2017.

Before that, about one-fourth of all girls were
married before they turned 18.

nI could go on, because women and girls face problems such as lower pay, less access to education, violence, and harassment, but I think you get the idea. We must all – men and women, boys and girls, stand together to reduce and eliminate the oppression of women and girls!!