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Not many victories to celebrate, but much to protest against. On March 8, women worldwide demand increased rights, equal pay and an end to men’s violence against women.
On International Women’s Day, France enters the right to abortion into the country’s constitution. The constitutional amendment has been hailed as a victory for women’s rights and is seen by many French as a milestone in the fight for equality. But not by all.
– It’s a smokescreen. The government is destroying our healthcare system, so many family planning clinics have been closed, 32-year-old Arya Meroni told the AP news agency.
France has long grappled with grim statistics regarding murders of women and sexual harassment. French women also have lower wages and lower pensions than men – especially non-white women.
Turkish protest against violence
This is how it looks in most of the world’s countries. During Friday, women around the world gathered to protest against the current system.
Women in Thailand marched with demands for better working conditions, Indonesian women with angry slogans against violence and harassment at work, and South Korean women with demands for an increased focus on equality in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
In Turkish cities, women protested against the soaring levels of violence against women, as well as in Mexico, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, among others.
Defied Taliban
In other countries, not quite as many women were seen on the streets. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to the Russian women fighting for Russia in Ukraine and those waiting for their husbands and sons back home. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced reduced cooking gas prices, according to a post on X, as part of the country’s drive to “empower women.”
In Afghanistan, often called the world’s worst country to be a woman, women gathered in smaller gatherings to escape the country’s ultra-religious Taliban rule. In several cities, they protested with guilty faces and demands to return to schools and universities.
– It is painful that a woman completely lacks value in our society today. She has no rights, says an anonymous woman to the AFP news agency.
Even in Pakistan, one of the world’s most unequal countries, women rallied to protest violence, street harassment, the wage gap and the lack of women in politics.