In 1945, when the United Nations Charter was drafted, its authors and those who first adopted it carefully crafted language on how to deal with armed conflict in the world. Between the signing of the charter in June and its coming into force in October, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities: Hiroshima, on 6 August, and Nagasaki, on 9 August. It is hard to digest the fact that as the charter’s solemn preamble was being formalised, setting out to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind’, the United States armed forces were preparing to destroy two civilian cities in a country already on the brink of surrender.
Managua, Nicaragua — If you asked 100 people in the U.S. or the U.K. to name the country leading gender equity in the Americas, it’s unlikely anyone would correctly answer Nicaragua. This lack of awareness reflects the success of a decades-long imperialist campaign to discredit and undermine Nicaragua’s remarkable achievements since the 1979 revolution.
The U.S has continuously attempted to destroy the Sandinista revolution, from the contra wars, through active support for the 16 years of neo-liberal government, to the 2018 attempted coup, and the current punitive economic sanctions.
In March 2025, during International Women’s Day, a delegation of solidarity activists traveled to Nicaragua with Casa Ben Linder and Jubilee House Community to witness firsthand the progress made by women since the revolution. The delegation met with a wide range of individuals and institutions driving these advancements, including mayors, deputy mayors, hospital and clinic directors, governmental ministers, police captains, patients, health promoters, preschoolers, mothers, women members in the National Assembly, technical school trainees, social workers, nurses, and more. These meetings took place in Managua, Ciudad Sandino, Ciudad Darío, Estelí, San Nicolás, San Juan de Limay, El Sauce and San Juan de Oriente.
The Family-Community Model: A National Priority
In recent years, Nicaragua has enacted numerous laws and constitutional reforms to institutionalize gender equity and the rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant people’s rights. Unlike many countries that merely pay lip service to such principles, Nicaragua has implemented a comprehensive, nationwide program that extends from the national level down to individual families and communities. At the heart of this effort is Nicaragua’s family-community model, which reflects the nation’s commitment to eradicating poverty and promoting social equity.
Key Achievements in Gender Equity
50/50 Representation: Nicaragua has implemented a groundbreaking 50/50 policy, ensuring equal gender representation in all levels of decision-making, from local councils to national government bodies. Women now hold 60% of the seats in the National Assembly and 75% of ministerial and vice-ministerial positions.
Collaborative Governance: Ministries, mayoral offices, the National Assembly, and nonprofits work in unison to prioritize prevention, education, and community well-being.
Women’s Police Departments: Specialized units have been established to address gender-based violence, child abuse, and support women and children’s safety.
Free Education and Healthcare: Universal access to education and healthcare has been a cornerstone of Nicaragua’s efforts to empower women and reduce poverty.
Self-determination: Indigenous and Afro-descendants have communal title to lands making up nearly one-third of Nicaragua’s national territory.
A Model of Socialist Progress
Nicaragua’s achievements are a testament to its commitment to building a socialist society centered on equity, justice, and the vibrant culture of community empowerment. The country’s progress stands in stark contrast to the negative narratives often propagated by Western media.
As an FSLN leader told us, “A country that does not educate itself does not move forward”. In that spirit we encourage you not to take our word—or any Western media source—as the final say. Visit Nicaragua with an open mind, witness these advancements for yourself, and be inspired by a nation actively working to create a more just and equitable society.
Jameela Alexander, USA
Kenneth Yale, USA
Deanna Risser, USA
Geraldine Cawthorne, UK
March is the month of International Working Women’s Day, a day deeply rooted in the socialist movement. Most of the world now only calls 8 March ‘International Women’s Day’, excluding the word ‘working’ from its title. But work is a fundamental part of women’s daily lives. According to UN Women’s annual report Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2024, 63.3% of women worldwide participated in the labour force in 2022. However, due to the appalling state of social protections and labour regimes, by 2024 nearly 10% of women were living in extreme poverty.
Milwaukee, WI – Over 1200 people joined the 4th annual International Women’s Day celebration organized by the Milwaukee IWD Coalition, a broad coalition consisting of numerous grassroots organizations.
This year’s event began with a rally, followed by a brief march to the Milwaukee Turners, an historic building with a progressive socialist history that is located on Vel R. Phillips Avenue, named after a trailblazing civil rights leader from Milwaukee. At the Turners, the event transitioned to a panel discussion with various organizers, and a keynote address by Alondra García, a public school educator and immigrant rights activist.
More than 2000 people — mostly women and union members — marked International Women’s Day two days early last week on March 6 with a lively rally and march in Melbourne, capital of the Australian state of Victoria.
Chants of “Women united will never be defeated”, “Tell me what a feminist looks like? This is what a feminist looks like” and “When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” rang through the streets.
Speakers addressed the inequality women still faced at work and in society, the leading roles women play in many struggles for justice, including for First Nations rights, against the junta in Myanmar, against Israel’s genocide in Gaza/Palestine, and against oppressive regimes like that in Iran.
When Michelle O’Neill, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) spoke, some women chanted “CFMEU” to demonstrate their displeasure at the ACTU’s complicity in attacks against that union.
The rally also marched to Victoria’s Parliament House.
Republished from Green Left.
in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, activists marked International Women’s Day on Saturday and the start of Ramadan this week with solidarity rallies across the country, calling for justice and peace for Palestinian women and the territories occupied illegally by Israel.
The theme this year for IWD was “For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” and this was the 74th week of Palestinian solidarity protests.
The IWD protesters at the Victorian Parliament. Image: Jordan AK/Green Left
Women took to the streets of cities across the globe on Saturday to mark International Women’s Day. Protests and rallies were held in major capitals as activists called for an end to inequality and gender-based violence, among many other demands. Thousands marched in the European capital, Brussels to warn against what organisers of the rally called a “worrying regression” in women’s rights.
The rise of the right, and in some cases, far-right, across European countries has led many activists to worry that women’s rights may be under threat.
“With the rise of the far right everywhere in Europe there could really be a backlash on the rights (of women and minorities),” said Quentin Poucard, a French protester participating in the Brussels rally.
Women took to the streets of cities across the globe on Saturday to mark International Women’s Day. Protests and rallies were held in major capitals as activists called for an end to inequality and gender-based violence, among many other demands. Thousands marched in the European capital, Brussels to warn against what organisers of the rally called a “worrying regression” in women’s rights.
The rise of the right, and in some cases, far-right, across European countries has led many activists to worry that women’s rights may be under threat.
“With the rise of the far right everywhere in Europe there could really be a backlash on the rights (of women and minorities),” said Quentin Poucard, a French protester participating in the Brussels rally.
International Women’s Day, March 8, is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women around the world.
Closer to home, here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we can take a moment to acknowledge Pasifika women, and in particular the contributions of Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban.
For her, “International Women’s day is an opportunity to acknowledge Pasifika women’s contribution to economic, social, and cultural development in New Zealand and our Pacific region.”
Luamanuvao has a significant string of “firsts” in her resume, including becoming the first Pasifika woman to be elected to Parliament in 1999.
Growing up, she drew great motivation from her parents’ immigrant story.
She told RNZ Pacific that she often contemplated their journey to New Zealand from Samoa on a boat. Sailing with them were their dreams for a better life.
‘Hard work and sacrifice’
“And it is that hard work and sacrifice that for me makes me reflect on why this award is so important.
“Because it acknowledges the Pacific journey of sacrifice and dreams. But more importantly, bringing up a generation who must make the best use of their opportunities.”
Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban and supporters during an International Women’s day event in Wellington. Image: RNZ Pacific
After serving as assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) at Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University since 2010, Dame Winnie is stepping down. As she prepares to move on from that role, she spoke to RNZ Pacific about the importance of Pasifika women in society.
“Our women teach us that our strength and resilience is in our relationship, courage to do what is right, respect and ability to work together, stay together and look after and support each other,” she said.
“We are also reminded of the powerful women from our communities who are strong leaders and contributors to the welfare and wellbeing of our families and communities.
“They are the sacred weavers of our ie toga, tivaevae, latu, bilum and masi that connect our genealogy and our connection to each other.
“Our Pacific Ocean is our mother and she binds us together. This is our enduring legacy.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Women and their allies took to the streets of cities and towns from coast to coast Saturday for a “Unite and Resist” national day of action against the Trump administration coordinated by Women’s March. “Since taking office, the Trump administration has unleashed a war against women driven by the Project 2025 playbook, which is why, more than ever, we must continue to resist, persist…
Activists in Aotearoa New Zealand marked International Women’s Day today and the start of Ramadan this week with solidarity rallies across the country, calling for justice and peace for Palestinian women and the territories occupied illegally by Israel.
The theme this year for IWD is “For all women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment” and this was the 74th week of Palestinian solidarity protests.
First speaker at the Auckland rally today, Del Abcede of the Aotearoa section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), said the protest was “timely given how women have suffered the brunt of Israel’s war on Palestine and the Gaza ceasefire in limbo”.
Del Abcede of the Aotearoa section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) . . . “Empowered women empower the world.” Image: David Robie/APR
“Women are the backbone of families and communities. They provide care, support and nurturing to their families and the development of children,” she said.
“Women also play a significant role in community building and often take on leadership roles in community organisations. Empowered women empower the world.”
Abcede explained how the non-government organisation WILPF had national sections in 37 countries, including the Palestine branch which was founded in 1988. WILPF works close with its Palestinian partners, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) and General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW).
“This catastrophe is playing out on our TV screens every day. The majority of feminists in Britain — and in the West — seem to have nothing to say about it,” Abcede said, quoting gender researcher Dr Maryam Aldosarri, to cries of shame.
‘There can be no neutrality’
“In the face of such overwhelming terror, there can be no neutrality.”
Dr Aldosarri said in an article published earlier in the war on Gaza last year that the “siege and indiscriminate bombardment” had already “killed, maimed and disappeared under the rubble tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children”.
“Many more have been displaced and left to survive the harsh winter without appropriate shelter and supplies. The almost complete breakdown of the healthcare system, coupled with the lack of food and clean water, means that some 45,000 pregnant women and 68,000 breastfeeding mothers in Gaza are facing the risk of anaemia, bleeding, and death.
“Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian women and children in the occupied West Bank are still imprisoned, many without trial, and trying to survive in abominable conditions.”
The death toll in the war — with killings still happening in spite of the precarious ceasefire — is now more than 50,000 — mostly women and children.
“Achieving durable and equitable peace demands addressing the root causes of violence and oppression. This means adhering to the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 advisory opinion by dismantling the foundational structures of colonial violence and ensuring Palestinians’ rights to self-determination, dignity and freedom.”
Action for justice and peace
Abcede also spoke about what action to take for “justice and peace” — such as countering disinformation and influencing the narrative; amplifying Palstinian voices and demands; joining rallies — “like what we do every Saturday”; supporting the global BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign against Israel; writing letters to the government calling for special visas for Palestinians who have families in New Zealand; and donating to campaigns supporting the victims.
Lorri Mackness also of WILPF (right) . . . “Women will be delivered [of babies] in tents, corridors, or bombed out homes without anasthesia, without doctors, without clean water.” Image: David Robie/APRLorri Mackness, also of WILPF Aotearoa, spoke of the Zionist gendered violence against Palestinians and the ruthless attacks on Gaza’s medical workers and hospitals to destroy the health sector.
Gaza’s hospitals had been “reduced to rubble by Israeli bombs”, she said.
“UN reports that over 60,000 women would give birth this year in Gaza. But Israel has destroyed every maternity hospital.
“Women will be delivered in tents, corridors, or bombed out homes without anasthesia, without doctors, without clean water.
“When Israel killed Gaza’s only foetal medicine specialist, Dr Muhammad Obeid, it wasn’t collateral damage — it was calculated reproductive terror.”
“Now, miscarriages have spiked by 300 percent, and mothers stitch their own C-sections with sewing thread.”
‘Femicide – a war crime’
Babies who survived birth entered a world where Israel blocked food aid — 1 in 10 infants would die of starvation, 335,000 children faced starvation, and their mothers forced to watch, according to UNICEF.
“This is femicide — this is a war crime.”
Eugene Velasco, of the Filipino feminist action group Gabriela Aotearoa, said Israel’s violence in Gaza was a “clear reminder of the injustice that transcends geographical borders”.
“The injustice is magnified in Gaza where the US-funded genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people has resulted in the deaths of more than 61,000.”
‘Pernicious’ Regulatory Standards Bill
Dr Jane Kelsey, a retired law professor and justice advocate, spoke of an issue that connected the “scourge of colonisation in Palestine and Aotearoa with the same lethal logic and goals”.
Law professor Dr Jane Kelsey . . . “Behind the scenes is ACT’s more systemic and pernicious Regulatory Standards Bill.” Image: David Robie/APR
The parallels between both colonised territories included theft of land and the creation of private property rights, and the denial of sovereign authority and self-determination.
She spoke of how international treaties that had been entered in good faith were disrespected, disregarded and “rewritten as it suits the colonising power”.
Dr Kelsey said an issue that had “gone under the radar” needed to be put on the radar and for action.
She said that while the controversial Treaty Principles Bill would not proceed because of the massive mobilisations such as the hikoi, it had served ACT’s purpose.
“Behind the scenes is ACT’s more systemic and pernicious Regulatory Standards Bill,” she said. ACT had tried three times to get the bill adopted and failed, but it was now in the coalition government’s agreement.
A ‘stain on humanity’
Meanwhile, Hamas has reacted to a Gaza government tally of the number of women who were killed by Israel’s war, reports Al Jazeera.
“The killing of 12,000 women in Gaza, the injury and arrest of thousands, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands are a stain on humanity,” the group said.
“Palestinian female prisoners are subjected to psychological and physical torture in flagrant violation of all international norms and conventions.”
Hamas added the suffering endured by Palestinian female prisoners revealed the “double standards” of Western countries, including the United States, in dealing with Palestinians.
Filipino feminist activists from Gabriela Aotearoa and the International Women’s Alliance (IWA) also participated in the pro-Palestine solidarity rally. Image: David Robie/APR
Women from Aotearoa, Philippines, Palestine and South Africa today called for justice and peace for the people of Gaza and the West Bank, currently under a genocidal siege and attacks being waged by Israel for the past 16 months.
Marking International Women’s Day, the rally highlighted the theme: “For all women and girls – Rights, equality and empowerment.”
Speakers outlined how women are the “backbone of families and communities” and how they have borne the brunt of the crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine with the “Israeli war machine” having killed more than 50,000 people, mostly women and children, since 7 October 2023.
The speakers included Del Abcede and Lorri Mackness of the International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Gabriela’s Eugene Velasco, and retired law professor Jane Kelsey.
IWD 1: A West Papua flag on display at the International Women’s Day rally for peace and justice in Palestine. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 2: “Women unite to eliminate violence and war.” Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 3: Peace and justice for Gaza in Auckland’s “Palestine Square”.
IWD 4: WILPF’s Del Abcede speaking at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 5: Gabriela’s Eugene Velasco speaking at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 6: WILPF’s Lorri Mackness and Del Abcede, speakers at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 7: The International Women’s Alliance (of the Philippines) at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 8: Retired law professor Jane Kelsey speaking at the Palestine rally. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 9: The Gabriela group from the Philippines in solidarity with Palestinians. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 10: Duet singers for Palestine. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 11: “Israel’s war against Palestine didn’t start on 7 October 2023” – it began with the Nakba (“catastrophe”) in 1948, and even earlier. Image: David Robie/APR
IWD 12: International Women’s Day protesters for solidarity with Palestine and a cruise ship backdrop. Image: David Robie/APR
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Across the world, International Women’s Day has always been more than a celebration – it is a day of struggle. It was forged in the fight of New York City garment workers who took to the streets in 1908, to protest the super-exploitation they endured in sweatshops as they tried to support their families: dangerous working conditions, back-breaking hours, child labor and wage theft. They marched shoulder to shoulder with the suffragettes fighting for women’s right to vote. The revolutionary hero Clara Zetkin marked March 8th as a global day of action as a way to unite women worldwide in the fight for socialism and liberation.
8 March was not always International Women’s Day, nor has there always been any such day at all. The idea emerged from the Socialist International (also known as the Second International), where Clara Zetkin of the German Social Democratic Party and others fought from 1889 to hold a day to celebrate working women’s lives and struggles. Zetkin, alongside Alexandra Kollontai of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, sustained a struggle with their comrades to recognise the role of working women and the role of domestic labour in the creation of social wealth. In a context in which women across the North Atlantic states did not have the right to vote, these women intervened in a debate that was taking place among delegates of the Socialist International over whether men and women workers must be united under the banner of socialism to fight against their shared experience of exploitation or whether women should stay home.
In 1908, the women’s section of the Socialist Party of America held a mass rally in Chicago on 3 May to celebrate Woman’s Day. The following year, on 28 February 1909, this expanded to National Woman’s Day, held across the US. At the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Copenhagen in 1910, a resolution was finally passed for all sections of the Socialist International to organise Women’s Day celebrations that would take place the following year. Socialist women organised public events in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland on 19 March 1911 to commemorate the March Revolution of 1848 in Germany. In 1912, Europeans celebrated Women’s Day on 12 May, and in 1913, Russian women marked the date on 8 March. In 1917, women workers in Russia organised a mass strike and demonstrations for ‘bread and peace’ on 8 March, which sparked the wider struggles that led to the Russian Revolution. At the Communist Women’s Second International Conference in 1921, 8 March was officially chosen as the date for annual celebrations of International Working Women’s Day. That is how the date became a fixture on the international calendar of struggles.
In 1945, communist women from around the world formed the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), a body that was instrumental in establishing International Women’s Day. In 1972, Freda Brown from Australia’s WIDF section and the Communist Party of Australia wrote to the United Nations (UN) to propose that it hold an International Women’s Year and that it advance the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Pushed by WIDF, Helvi Sipilä, a Finnish diplomat and the first woman to hold the position of UN assistant secretary-general (at a time when 97% of senior positions were held by men) seconded the proposal for the International Women’s Year, which was accepted in 1972 and held in 1975. In 1977, the United Nations passed a resolution to hold a Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace, which is now known as International Women’s Day and held on 8 March.
Each March, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research honours this tradition by publishing a text that highlights an important woman in our struggle, such as Kanak Mukherjee (1921–2005) of India, Nela Martínez Espinosa (1912–2004) of Ecuador, and Josie Mpama (1903–1979) of South Africa. This year, we celebrate International Women’s Day (though perhaps International Working Women’s Month would be better) with the publication of dossier no. 74, Interrupted Emancipation: Women and Work in East Germany, produced in collaboration with the Zetkin Forum for Social Research and International Research Centre DDR (IFDDR). We have published two previous studies with IFDDR, one on the economic history of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and the other on healthcare in the DDR. The Zetkin Forum is our partner on the European continent, named after both Clara Zetkin (1857–1933), whose work contributed to the creation of International Working Women’s Day, and her son Maxim Zetkin (1883–1965), a surgeon who helped build the new healthcare system in the Soviet Union, fought as part of the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic (1931–1939), and became a leading physician in the DDR.
Interrupted Emancipation traces the struggles of socialist women in East Germany in various women’s platforms and within the state structures themselves. These women – such as Katharina ‘Käthe’ Kern, Hilde Benjamin, Lykke Aresin, Helga E. Hörz, Grete Groh-Kummerlöw, and Herta Kuhrig – fought to build an egalitarian legal order, develop socialist policies for childcare and eldercare, and bring women into leadership positions in both economic and political institutions. These programmes were not designed merely to improve the welfare and wellbeing of women, but also to transform social life, social hierarchies, and social consciousness. As Hilde Benjamin, the DDR’s minister of justice from 1953 to 1967, explained, it was essential that laws not only provide a framework to guarantee and enforce social rights, but that they also ‘achieve further progress in the development of socialist consciousness’.
Women entered the workforce in large numbers, fought for better family planning (including abortions), and demanded the dignity that they deserved. Interrupted Emancipations teaches us how so much was achieved in such a short time (a mere forty years). Leaders like Helga Hörz argued for women’s entry into the workforce not merely to enhance their incomes, but to ensure the possibility of women’s participation in public life. However, changes did not take place at the speed required. In December 1961, the politburo of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) condemned the ‘fact that a totally insufficient percentage of women and girls exercise middle and managerial functions’, blaming, in part, ‘the underestimation of the role of women in socialist society that still exists among many – especially men, including leading party, state, economic, and trade union functionaries’. To transform this reality, women set up committees in workplaces as well as housewives’ brigades to build mass struggles that fought to win society over to women’s emancipation.
The destruction of the DDR in the 1990s and its incorporation into West Germany led to the erosion of the gains socialist women had made. Today, in Germany, these socialist policies no longer remain, nor do mass struggles retain the level of vitality that they achieved in the four decades of the DDR. That is why the dossier is called Interrupted Emancipation, perhaps a reflection of the authors’ hope and conviction that this dynamic can be brought back to life.
Gisela Steineckert was one of the women who benefitted from the transformations that took place in the DDR, where she became a celebrated writer and worked to develop the cultural sector. In her poem ‘In the Evening’, she asks, is the struggle worth it? Without much pause, she answers: ‘the heart of the dreamer is always overly full’. The necessity of a better world is a sufficient answer.
In the evening, our dreams rest their heads against the moon,
asking with a deep sigh if the struggle is even worth it.
Everyone knows someone who suffers, suffers more than anyone should.
Oh, and the heart of the dreamer is always overly full.
In the evening the mockers come, a smile on their lips.
Belittle our every asset, turn pounds into chips.
They like to come at us with their lines, no one’s spared it.
Oh, and they advise us: Nothing was worth it.
In the evening, the sceptics come with creased faces,
leaf through old letters, don’t trust our words.
They stay away from it all, age ahead of their time.
Oh, and their pain and suffering are sublime.
In the evening, the fighters take off their boots,
eat dinner with relish, hammer three nails into the roof.
They want to contend with half a book, fall asleep at the end of a line,
amid captured weapons, next to red wine.
8 March was not always International Women’s Day, nor has there always been any such day at all. The idea emerged from the Socialist International (also known as the Second International), where Clara Zetkin of the German Social Democratic Party and others fought from 1889 to hold a day to celebrate working women’s lives and struggles. Zetkin, alongside Alexandra Kollontai of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, sustained a struggle with their comrades to recognise the role of working women and the role of domestic labour in the creation of social wealth. In a context in which women across the North Atlantic states did not have the right to vote, these women intervened in a debate that was taking place among delegates of the Socialist International over whether men and women workers must be united under the banner of socialism to fight against their shared experience of exploitation or whether women should stay home.
In 1908, the women’s section of the Socialist Party of America held a mass rally in Chicago on 3 May to celebrate Woman’s Day. The following year, on 28 February 1909, this expanded to National Woman’s Day, held across the US. At the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Copenhagen in 1910, a resolution was finally passed for all sections of the Socialist International to organise Women’s Day celebrations that would take place the following year. Socialist women organised public events in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland on 19 March 1911 to commemorate the March Revolution of 1848 in Germany. In 1912, Europeans celebrated Women’s Day on 12 May, and in 1913, Russian women marked the date on 8 March. In 1917, women workers in Russia organised a mass strike and demonstrations for ‘bread and peace’ on 8 March, which sparked the wider struggles that led to the Russian Revolution. At the Communist Women’s Second International Conference in 1921, 8 March was officially chosen as the date for annual celebrations of International Working Women’s Day. That is how the date became a fixture on the international calendar of struggles.
In 1945, communist women from around the world formed the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), a body that was instrumental in establishing International Women’s Day. In 1972, Freda Brown from Australia’s WIDF section and the Communist Party of Australia wrote to the United Nations (UN) to propose that it hold an International Women’s Year and that it advance the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Pushed by WIDF, Helvi Sipilä, a Finnish diplomat and the first woman to hold the position of UN assistant secretary-general (at a time when 97% of senior positions were held by men) seconded the proposal for the International Women’s Year, which was accepted in 1972 and held in 1975. In 1977, the United Nations passed a resolution to hold a Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace, which is now known as International Women’s Day and held on 8 March.
Each March, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research honours this tradition by publishing a text that highlights an important woman in our struggle, such as Kanak Mukherjee (1921–2005) of India, Nela Martínez Espinosa (1912–2004) of Ecuador, and Josie Mpama (1903–1979) of South Africa. This year, we celebrate International Women’s Day (though perhaps International Working Women’s Month would be better) with the publication of dossier no. 74, Interrupted Emancipation: Women and Work in East Germany, produced in collaboration with the Zetkin Forum for Social Research and International Research Centre DDR (IFDDR). We have published two previous studies with IFDDR, one on the economic history of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and the other on healthcare in the DDR. The Zetkin Forum is our partner on the European continent, named after both Clara Zetkin (1857–1933), whose work contributed to the creation of International Working Women’s Day, and her son Maxim Zetkin (1883–1965), a surgeon who helped build the new healthcare system in the Soviet Union, fought as part of the International Brigades in defence of the Spanish Republic (1931–1939), and became a leading physician in the DDR.
Interrupted Emancipation traces the struggles of socialist women in East Germany in various women’s platforms and within the state structures themselves. These women – such as Katharina ‘Käthe’ Kern, Hilde Benjamin, Lykke Aresin, Helga E. Hörz, Grete Groh-Kummerlöw, and Herta Kuhrig – fought to build an egalitarian legal order, develop socialist policies for childcare and eldercare, and bring women into leadership positions in both economic and political institutions. These programmes were not designed merely to improve the welfare and wellbeing of women, but also to transform social life, social hierarchies, and social consciousness. As Hilde Benjamin, the DDR’s minister of justice from 1953 to 1967, explained, it was essential that laws not only provide a framework to guarantee and enforce social rights, but that they also ‘achieve further progress in the development of socialist consciousness’.
Women entered the workforce in large numbers, fought for better family planning (including abortions), and demanded the dignity that they deserved. Interrupted Emancipations teaches us how so much was achieved in such a short time (a mere forty years). Leaders like Helga Hörz argued for women’s entry into the workforce not merely to enhance their incomes, but to ensure the possibility of women’s participation in public life. However, changes did not take place at the speed required. In December 1961, the politburo of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) condemned the ‘fact that a totally insufficient percentage of women and girls exercise middle and managerial functions’, blaming, in part, ‘the underestimation of the role of women in socialist society that still exists among many – especially men, including leading party, state, economic, and trade union functionaries’. To transform this reality, women set up committees in workplaces as well as housewives’ brigades to build mass struggles that fought to win society over to women’s emancipation.
The destruction of the DDR in the 1990s and its incorporation into West Germany led to the erosion of the gains socialist women had made. Today, in Germany, these socialist policies no longer remain, nor do mass struggles retain the level of vitality that they achieved in the four decades of the DDR. That is why the dossier is called Interrupted Emancipation, perhaps a reflection of the authors’ hope and conviction that this dynamic can be brought back to life.
Gisela Steineckert was one of the women who benefitted from the transformations that took place in the DDR, where she became a celebrated writer and worked to develop the cultural sector. In her poem ‘In the Evening’, she asks, is the struggle worth it? Without much pause, she answers: ‘the heart of the dreamer is always overly full’. The necessity of a better world is a sufficient answer.
In the evening, our dreams rest their heads against the moon,
asking with a deep sigh if the struggle is even worth it.
Everyone knows someone who suffers, suffers more than anyone should.
Oh, and the heart of the dreamer is always overly full.
In the evening the mockers come, a smile on their lips.
Belittle our every asset, turn pounds into chips.
They like to come at us with their lines, no one’s spared it.
Oh, and they advise us: Nothing was worth it.
In the evening, the sceptics come with creased faces,
leaf through old letters, don’t trust our words.
They stay away from it all, age ahead of their time.
Oh, and their pain and suffering are sublime.
In the evening, the fighters take off their boots,
eat dinner with relish, hammer three nails into the roof.
They want to contend with half a book, fall asleep at the end of a line,
amid captured weapons, next to red wine.
Jana Fayyad, a Palestinian activist, had some sharp words about “the silence of Western feminists” at International Women’s Day, asking in her address to the Palestine rally in Sydney last Saturday: “Are you only progressive until Palestine?”
No Palestinian speaker had been asked to address the annual protest the previous day and Fayyad did not mince her words.
“Save your corporate high teas, your bullshit speeches, your ridiculous and laughable social media posts on this International Women’s Day!” she said.
“We don’t think of Margaret Thatcher or Ursula Von der Leyen or Hillary Clinton.
“We think of Besan [Helasa], we think of Dr Amira al Assori, we think of Hind Khoudary — we think Plestia [Alaqad], we think of Lama Jamous.
“We think of the women that we honour — the women in Gaza.
“And beyond the women of Gaza, we think of Leila Khaled and Hanan Ashrawi and Fadua Tuqan and Amira Hass and Dr Mona el Farrah — the women at the forefront of Palestinian liberation.”
She said considering that 9000 women had been “slaughtered by the terrorist state of Israel”, the silence of Western feminists had been deafening.
“The silence has been deafening — the silence on the 15,000 children slaughtered; the silence on the sexual assault and the rape that woman in Gaza have been subjected to; the silence on the horrific conditions that 50,000 pregnant women face having to do C-sections without anesthesia; and the silence on the mothers having to pick up their children in pieces,” Fayyad said.
“The silence is deafening!”
“Where is your feminism?” she asked.
“I don’t see it anywhere! I don’t hear of it! Where are your voices? Or are you only progressive until Palestine?”
The US singer has been called out by human rights activists for hosting a summit and performing on stage in the repressive state
Performer Alicia Keys projects a powerful position on women’s rights, hosting a regular Women to Women summit and posting inspirationally on Instagram on Friday for International Women’s Day. But the singer-songwriter’s message is undermined for some by the revelation that she is hosting the third edition of her summit this weekend in Saudi Arabia.
The American performer and her guests, including Pharrell Williams, best known for his worldwide hit Happy, are to discuss “how women are pushing the culture forward in Saudi Arabia and around the world”, she has announced, before the get-together in the coastal city of Jeddah.
Argentinian women from all walks of life will take to the streets nationwide on 8 March, International Women’s Day, as part of a feminist strike calling for an end to the country’s growing poverty, which already affects 57% of the population of 46 million. The protesters’ “most important demand” is a solution to Argentina’s “food emergency”, said María Claudia Albornoz, an activist from La…
Global Voices has released a special coverage called Empowering voices: Women in politics, which explores the state of women’s political participation around the world.
Human Rights First referred to a new report reveals that WHRDs face increasing harassment and threats from a global movement against gender equality and LGBTQI+ rights. The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, a leading feminist women’s rights organization, released Hope and Resistance Go Together: The State of Women Human Rights Defenders 2023, a report that found discouraging growth in harassment of WHRDs. The foundation surveyed 458 women’s and queer rights activists and interviewed 25 activists representing WHRDs from 67 countries affected by violence or conflict.
They found that 75% reported facing harassment for their activism, a 15% increase from two years ago, and 25% of respondents have received death threats. Most harassment comes from government authorities, but increased harassment from far-right groups and anti-gender equality actors is also driving these startling statistics. Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) across the world face resistance and violence. In 2022, at least 401 HRDs were killed for their peaceful work. But some of the obstacles facing WHRDs are distinct. https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/recognizing-women-human-rights-defenders-on-international-womens-day/
Human Rights Watch on 7 March carried a piece by Macarena Sáez who says inter alia:
On this International Women’s Day, we march for the one in three women who experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. We cheer for countries like Argentina, Colombia, and Ireland that value our autonomy to choose to be pregnant and have legalized access to safe abortion, while protesting that abortion is still or again illegal in many places, including US states like Alabama and Texas. At the same time, we march to honor the women who marched before us, like the Mexican women who organized the first feminist congress in 1916 to push for family law reforms and their right to vote, and the Nigerians who waged their “Women’s War” against colonization and patriarchal laws in 1929. Their struggles sadly mirror the reality of many women around the world today – especially women who belong to historically marginalized groups – who continue to rally against violence and abuse.
Fearing the power of women’s solidarity and collective actions, governments have stifled women’s speech through restrictions on movement, censorship, smear campaigns, and criminal prosecutions. In highly repressive contexts, like Afghanistan and Iran, women suffer arbitrary detention, and even enforced disappearance and torture, for their activism. Meanwhile, social media companies have not done enough to protect women from online violence, chilling women’s freedom of expression on and offline. These barriers make it hard for women’s equality to become reality. Gender justice requires an enabling environment in which women can express themselves, speak and spread their political views, and participate in political and public life. Instead of repressing or tolerating the repression of women, governments should recognize our collective actions – and consequent power – and enshrine our rights in laws, policies, and practice. [https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/07/womens-voices-have-power-drive-change]
On 8 March 8, 2024 Almyra Luna Kamilla and Rosalind Ratana opined in IMHO on “Navigating the storms of repression: The resilience of young women rights defenders in Asia”
In recent years, Asia has been witnessing rising authoritarianism and shrinking civic space. Among those in the frontlines of resistance are young women human rights defenders. As we celebrate International Women’s Day, let us demand for an enabling world where women human rights defenders can continue their noble pursuits without fear of reprisals.
In Thailand, the royal defamation law is being excessively used to silence criticisms against the monarchy. Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, economic and political mismanagement has sparked peaceful protests that are met with violence and intimidation. The fate of Asia’s political climate hangs by a thread as elections are held across many countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, South Korea, and Pakistan. Now more than ever, governments across the region are finding ways to solidify their power, putting an even tighter grip on civil society to the detriment of democracy and people’s fundamental rights and freedoms.
Despite such challenges, many are courageously speaking out and taking collective action to reclaim power for the people. This includes young women human rights defenders – or Youth WHRDs – who are claiming space to call out human rights violations and to demand accountability from oppressive governments. [https://www.rappler.com/voices/imho/young-women-rights-defenders-asia/]
The Alliance for Human Rights in Afghanistan(a coalition of 9 major NGOs) urgently appealed to the international community to significantly bolster its support and actively safeguard the human rights of Afghan women and girls, including Afghan women human rights defenders who face persecution for their peaceful campaigns for rights and basic freedoms.
In 2023, the Taliban further intensified its oppressive policies toward women, girls, the LGBTIQ+ community, and religious minorities. Afghan women and girls have seen their rights and prospects increasingly curtailed, from greater enforcement of restrictions on education – including a ban on girls attending secondary schools and universities – to intensifying exclusion of women from political and public life. Women have been banned from a growing list of forms of paid employment, and economic barriers, such as the ban on women registering organisations and undergoing vocational training, have contributed to a sharp decline in women’s participation in the labour market, impeding their right to make a living. This exacerbates financial insecurity, widens gender disparities, and further confines women to the private sphere. Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women face severe threats, including torture, sexual violence, forced marriage, and death. Victims of gender violence, including those who identify as such, lack minimal legal and practical support. Obstacles to healthcare and education have exacerbated poverty and vulnerability among women and girls. In 2023, new discriminatory restrictions imposed by the Taliban included the closure of all beauty salons, blocking women from overseas travel for study, mandating female health workers in some areas to have a male chaperone while travelling or at work, and prohibiting women from entering a famous national park.
The oppressive environment extends to female activists, NGO leaders and journalists. Notable cases include the arrests of women’s rights activists Neda Parwani and Zholia Parsi, the enforced disappearance and subsequent discovery of Manizha Seddiqi in Taliban custody to date, the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, founder of an NGO advocating for girls’ education rights, and the arbitrary detainment of Ahmad Fahim Azimi and Seddiqullah Afghan—both dedicated girls’ education activists, among many others. Journalists reporting on the Taliban, facing arrests and threats, equally illustrate the difficulties encountered by the media, particularly women, when covering crimes against women or advocating for women’s rights. Collectively, these cases underscore the near-total denial of freedom of expression, gender equality, or any other internationally recognized right in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Amid this growing oppression, segregation and fear, Afghan women human rights defenders have urged the international community to exert greater pressure on the Taliban. They call on international bodies to involve Afghan women in all negotiations with the Taliban and to facilitate direct meetings between women and the de facto authorities to address their concerns. Afghan women have also stressed the importance of advocacy for women’s rights by external actors based on the voices and realities of women inside Afghanistan. They call for coordinated efforts between organisations inside and outside the country to defend the rights of Afghan women and girls.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called on the Taliban to release women human rights defenders as the world marks International Women’s Day.
I reiterate my appeal to the Taliban to respect all the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, including to education, work, freedom of movement and expression, and their cultural rights, and I urge the meaningful and equal participation of Afghan women and girls in all aspects of public life. I call on the Taliban to immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arbitrarily detained for defending human rights, especially the rights of women and girls.”
On International Women’s Day, the a group of NGOs (ALQST for Human Rights, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), Front Line Defenders, Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR),MENA Rights Group, Salam for Democracy and Human Rights) renewed their call on Saudi Arabian authorities to release all women human rights defenders (WHRDs), women’s rights activists and their supporters who are detained in contravention of international human rights standards. The organisations further call on Saudi authorities to lift travel bans imposed on WHRDs and their relatives, and to abolish the male guardianship system. [https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/civil-society-reiterates-their-call-on-saudi-authorities-to-release-jailed-womens-rights-activists/]
The President of Georgia awarded severl with mesla of honor: co-founder of “Safari” organization Babutsa Pataraia, human rights defender Ana Arganashvili, founders of “National Network for Protection from Violence”: Eliso Amirejibi and Nato Shavlakadze and founder of “Vedzeb” organization Tamar Museridze.
Berlin, March 8, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists and more than 100 journalists and media leaders sent an open letter to senior British police officers and lawmakers on Friday, International Women’s Day, calling on them to break the cycle of online violence and abuse against women working in journalism, which risks sidelining them from the profession, and to secure a safer future for women in the media.
In the letter, the signatories made four recommendations to the police:
to improve the recording of crimes against journalists
to provide national-level guidance for police on online violence against journalists and training on the gendered nature of online violence
Papua New Guinea’s national airline flight from Port Moresby to Cairns today was operated by an all female Air Niugini crew in recognition of International Women’s Day.
With the day’s theme of “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress”, the national airline continues its progress in equal participation for all women within the organisation, whether it be on the ground or in the sky.
The flight was under the command of Captain Beverly Pakii (inset) with First Officer Chantilly Padigaga. and assisted in the cabin by Jarmilah Mileng, Mimijanna Mabone and Magdalene Lapana.
In January, Captain Pakii became the first female pilot in Air Niugini and Papua New Guinea to captain a jet aircraft after attaining her command on a Fokker jet aircraft.
With this achievement, it enabled her to command or captain flights on the Air Niugini domestic and international network that are operated by Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 aircraft.
Her first commercial flight was on January 4 this year on a Fokker 100 aircraft flight from Port Moresby to Lae and return.
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Maayer Daak, and Odhikar on International Women’s Day 2024
In Bangladesh, the prevalence of violence and discrimination against women and girls is alarmingly widespread. Domestic violence, dowry-related abuse, rape, and sexual harassment still persist. Women and girls face discrimination and hardship. The families left behind by victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings endure significant financial hardships due to disappearances of the breadwinners and face threats from law enforcement agencies and government agents.
The country’s judicial system remains hostile towards women. Women and girls often encounter obstacles in seeking justice, including intimidation from perpetrators and corrupt judicial officers. Lengthy legal procedures that are often subjected to political interference commonly dissuade women from going to the courts.
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Maayer Daak, and Odhikar on International Women’s Day 2024
In Bangladesh, the prevalence of violence and discrimination against women and girls is alarmingly widespread. Domestic violence, dowry-related abuse, rape, and sexual harassment still persist. Women and girls face discrimination and hardship. The families left behind by victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings endure significant financial hardships due to disappearances of the breadwinners and face threats from law enforcement agencies and government agents.
The country’s judicial system remains hostile towards women. Women and girls often encounter obstacles in seeking justice, including intimidation from perpetrators and corrupt judicial officers. Lengthy legal procedures that are often subjected to political interference commonly dissuade women from going to the courts.
The Israeli army has raided dozens of homes in the West Bank and detained 20 Palestinians, including two women — journalist Bushra al-Taweel and activist Sumood Muteer.
Quoting witness accounts, Quds News Network reported that al-Taweel was beaten up by an officer who insulted her before she was arrested.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 57 journalists have been detained since October 7, with 38 of them still in jail. The organisation added that 22 of them were detained without charge.
Since October 7, at least 424 Palestinians, including 113 minors, three women and 12 prisoners in Israeli custody, have been killed in the West Bank alone.
At least 7450 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the war in Gaza.
Female Palestinian journalist and ex-prisoner Bushra Tawil was arrested by Israeli occupation soldiers last night during a raid into the city of Al-Bireh in the occupied West Bank.
According to eyewitnesses, Al-Tawil was subjected to a brutal attack by soldiers during a field… pic.twitter.com/59aRvQLrgA
The Israeli army targeted a group of journalists including AlJazeera’s crew, a colleague from another agency was killed and two of our colleagues at Aljazeera were injured, along with several others.
An Israeli tank crew fired shells at a clearly marked group of journalists near the border, killing one Reuters reporter and wounding six others, including two Al Jazeera reporters and an Agence France-Presse reporter.
An analysis by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), commissioned by Reuters, has found that the journalists were also targeted with machineguns, likely fired by the same Israeli forces.
“It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report said.
“The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machinegun] fire could not be established.”
AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd, reacting to the finding, said: “If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack.”
The Israeli army has raided dozens of homes in the West Bank and detained 20 Palestinians, including two women — journalist Bushra al-Taweel and activist Sumood Muteer.
Quoting witness accounts, Quds News Network reported that al-Taweel was beaten up by an officer who insulted her before she was arrested.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 57 journalists have been detained since October 7, with 38 of them still in jail. The organisation added that 22 of them were detained without charge.
Since October 7, at least 424 Palestinians, including 113 minors, three women and 12 prisoners in Israeli custody, have been killed in the West Bank alone.
At least 7450 Palestinians have been detained since the start of the war in Gaza.
Female Palestinian journalist and ex-prisoner Bushra Tawil was arrested by Israeli occupation soldiers last night during a raid into the city of Al-Bireh in the occupied West Bank.
According to eyewitnesses, Al-Tawil was subjected to a brutal attack by soldiers during a field… pic.twitter.com/59aRvQLrgA
The Israeli army targeted a group of journalists including AlJazeera’s crew, a colleague from another agency was killed and two of our colleagues at Aljazeera were injured, along with several others.
An Israeli tank crew fired shells at a clearly marked group of journalists near the border, killing one Reuters reporter and wounding six others, including two Al Jazeera reporters and an Agence France-Presse reporter.
An analysis by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), commissioned by Reuters, has found that the journalists were also targeted with machineguns, likely fired by the same Israeli forces.
“It is considered a likely scenario that a Merkava tank, after firing two tank rounds, also used its machine gun against the location of the journalists,” TNO’s report said.
“The latter cannot be concluded with certainty as the direction and exact distance of [the machinegun] fire could not be established.”
AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd, reacting to the finding, said: “If reports of sustained machine gun fire are confirmed, this would add more weight to the theory this was a targeted and deliberate attack.”
Azin Mohajerin and Hina Jilal at OMCT’s offices on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023. (Geneva Solutions/Michelle Langrand)
Michelle Langrand in Geneva Solutions of 10 March 2023 speaks with two human rights defenders, from Iran and Pakistan.
Iran’s crackdown on women’s rights protests that erupted in September and the Taliban recently banning women from working in NGOs or from attending university have served as a reminder of how fast women’s rights are sliding back in the region and other parts of the world. But despite widespread arrests, allegations of torture and the execution of four protesters in Iran, the women-led movement refuses to back down. For Azin Mohajerin, 36, it means that change is a little more within grasp. Mohajerin left Iran in 2010, following the wave of post-electoral protests that swept the country.
This time around she is supporting rights campaigners in the country, specifically from minority groups, through Miaan, an NGO in Texas she co-founded in 2019 and where she works as senior human rights officer.
Hina Jilani, an advocate of Pakistan’s Supreme Court and president of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), who fought against sharia laws in Pakistan back in the 80s, views it as another illustration of women’s resistance on the path to obtaining change.
Mohajerin and Jilani were in Geneva for international women’s day for an event organised by OMCT. Geneva Solutions spoke to the activists about the challenges women face in their countries and the lessons they can draw from each other.
Born in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab region, Hina Jilani grew up hearing about courtrooms and prisons. At that time, Pakistan was under martial law and her father’s political opposition would often land him into trouble. Rather than being traumatised, Jilani was empowered by the environment in which she was raised. Later in life as a lawyer, her work would also land her in those same courtrooms and prisons. Jilani passed the bar exam in 1977, the same year Sharia law was imposed on Pakistan. One of the new laws made adultery a crime against the state. See also: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/705AB196-BD5E-4EC2-B6C1-96AC5DDB353E .“While now Pakistan has a fit and reasonably good, protective legal framework for women, we have not gotten rid of the notorious practices like child marriage or honour killings. Gender-based violence is one of our biggest issues in Pakistan,” she pointed out. Pakistan reported around 63,000 cases of gender-based violence in the past three years according to Pakistan’s National Commission of Human Rights.
In Iran, the women-led movement for the freedom to choose what they wear and what to do with their bodies has been shaking the country for the past few months. But observers are cautious about the chances of the current uprising spurring real change in Iran as previous ones have failed to do so. Mohajerin, who cannot return to her country because of the sensitive nature of her work, sees it as one more step in the long path towards the respect of human rights.
The protests in Iran have brought out Iran’s ethnic minorities to march along with the Persian majority. Mahsa Amini, whose death in custody of the morality police last September triggered mass unrest, was a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Saqqez, in the Kurdistan province of Iran.
Mohajerin, who works with minority groups in Iran, sees that cultural change has seeped into some of the most conservative communities. “Women in Balochistan bravely went to the street in one of the rare moments that they have spoken up about their rights,” said Mohajerin.“There is a recognition that there is a gap that needs to be filled in terms of ethnic equality and gender equality.”
But Iran has also come down hard on these groups. “After Tehran, the top places in terms of arrests were minority populated areas: the Kurdish area, the Turkic and then Balochistan,” said Mohajerin. Many of them remain behind bars, she said.
“Culture can help people to break the chains,” said Jilani. “Not everything is because of what the leadership or the ruling elite do. Unfortunately, the ruling elite act in a certain manner because that is the national psyche.”
Mohajerin noted that Iranians have been fighting for their freedom for a long time now. “It’s not a new movement, it is not something that started in September or even last year. It has been a long-lasting fight,” said Mohajerin.
She recalled when women first marched against the mandatory hijab after it was introduced by the Islamic revolution in Iran 44 years ago. “In Iran, the woman cannot have custody of the child after a certain age and they don’t have the right to divorce. But they do not just give up and say okay, this is how we should live. They’ve been fighting to get their rights and finding loopholes in the system,” she said.
“The cultural change that has been achieved during the past decades is way more significant than the law that exists,” said Mohajerin.
The situation in Iran has drawn international outcry, with western powers condemning Iran’s violent response to the protests. Like many activists, Jilani and Mohajerin see international solidarity as essential to their causes.
“Voices from the outside can help when the environment inside the country is very difficult,” said Jilani. “I’m alive today because of international public opinion and the pressure of the international community,” said Jilani. She recalls former US president Jimmy Carter and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson pleading for her release from prison at one time.So many world leaders sent letters to Pakistan, protesting against my incarceration, that when they released me they showed me this thick file and said we don’t know why people around the world are so worried about you.”
When Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was in Geneva last week to speak before the Human Rights Council, campaigners called for diplomats to stage a walkout during his speech. Mohajerin recognised it as a “significant symbolic gesture to condemn the human rights abuses in Iran”. “However, it is crucial for the international community to engage in dialogue with the Iranian government regarding human rights violations, particularly in cases of executions, at the highest level,” she added.
But both Jilani and Mohajerin are adamant about something: change has to come from within. “The voice should come from the people inside the country. They are the ones who live in the country, and they are the ones who have to decide for their future,” said Mohajerin, noting that views within her country are not a monolith.
To ’embrace equity’ this International Women’s Day, what we really needed was a world without fossil fuel companies. Unfortunately, they still exist and they always have something patronising to say.
Oil and gas company Shell has come a long way since its shameless International Women’s Day stunt in 2020. After justified backlash when it rebranded a petrol station in California to ‘She’ll’, the company has stepped back its PR purplewash. The silence of its official social media accounts this International Women’s Day was refreshing. That’s one less corporate voice in the sea of companies crowding out women on a day that should be all about uplifting their voices. Shell has maybe even begun to realise that appropriating calls for social justice doesn’t actually help their public image. Well, maybe not quite.
There’s always one subsidiary or branch social that slips through the net. Shell Deer Park Chemicals, the Twitter account for Shell’s refinery operations in Texas, tweeted:
This #IWD we #EmbraceEquity across our workforce. From production, to safety, IT, maintenance, and technology these women play a vital role throughout our organization. pic.twitter.com/AyeL8hA7tN
— Shell Deer Park Chemicals (@ShellDeerPark) March 8, 2023
It was seemingly ignorant of the blatant hypocrisy of its urging to ’embrace equity’. While it celebrates the women in its own workforce, women in communities at the receiving end of Shell’s projects continue to suffer.
Embracing equity in the Niger Delta?
Shell can spew out empty platitudes to ‘embrace equity’ on social media, but can it tell that to the women farmers and fishers of the Niger Delta? There, oil spills and gas flaring are devastating livelihoods and endangering the health of women breadwinners in pastoral and agricultural communities across the region. 13,000 people from those communities are now taking Shell to court.
The Niger Delta in Nigeria is the site of perhaps one of the most infamous cases of fossil fuel human rights abuse. In 1995, the Nigerian government executed nine activists who were opposing Shell’s operations in the delta. This included writer and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. For decades, widowers of the Ogoni Nine – the men who were arbitrarily detained and executed without fair trial – have been fighting for justice. They took Shell to court, claiming that the company was complicit in the death of their husbands. However, in March 2022, a district court in the Hague dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence to prove Shell’s role.
Shell has repeatedly denied any involvement in the execution of the Ogoni 9. However, in 2009, it settled out of court with the Saro-Wiwa estate, relatives of members of the Ogoni 9, and others who faced human rights violations at the hands of the company for a sum of $15.5m.
Landgrabs and lies
As campaign group ShellsLies has pointed out, land-grabbing by fossil fuel projects disproportionately impacts women in land-based communities:
Women are disproportionately harmed by land-grabbing of #FossilFuel companies that destroy natural resources & women’s livelihoods. In Uganda, where #LandRights typically go to men, 100s of women have been internally displaced in refugee camps. #DayOfRuralWomen#StopEACOPhttps://t.co/6FBcTgo2Lx
The group gave the example that in some places like Uganda, women’s land tenure rights are lacking. Likewise, an investigation by the Canary recently revealed the impact of a solar park part-owned by Shell on communities in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Shell owns 250MW of the Rewa solar park through a subsidiary company. In consultations for the project, one of the major concerns women raised was the loss of their agricultural livelihoods. Large-scale projects like the solar park at Rewa can disproportionately impact women from rural communities. Landless and marginalised women rely on agricultural labour for their employment. In other words, projects like Rewa take the agricultural land of farm employers and jeopardise these critical jobs.
Gender pay gap and greed
Moreover, Shell Deer Park’s words ring hollow when you consider its gaping gender pay gap (GPG). Shell’s GPG – which is the difference between men and women’s average hourly earnings (excluding overtime) – was 18% in 2020. This was greater than the UK average, which stood at 15.5%.
Worse still, campaign group Global Witness has revealed that Shell’s outgoing CEO took home £9.7m in 2022. This is nearly 300 times the UK’s median salary. Meanwhile, households across the UK are in the grip of a class war driven by a Tory government pandering to this very kind of corporate greed.
Alice Harrison from Global Witness highlighted the disparity:
Shell’s CEO earned in one year what a typical UK worker would earn in six lifetimes.
She also said:
It’s a sign of just how broken our energy system is that Shell and other fossil fuel companies have made record-breaking profits from an energy crisis that’s forcing families to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table.
Of course, marginalised communities feel the effects of this crisis most profoundly. Women are unsurprisingly disproportionately impacted by the spiralling cost of living. A study by the Fawcett Society said that the impact is the result of factors like lower take-home pay and the compound pressures of insecure work and care commitments.
Some groups are fighting back against the cost of living crisis. The Warm this Winter campaign – a coalition of over 40 of the UK’s leading charities – delivered a petition to Parliament. It called on the government to meet its four key demands:
Provide emergency financial support for those in poverty.
On International Women’s Day, the world is at a turning point. On the one hand, we are facing the global rise of authoritarianism and fascism. On the other hand, popular uprisings for a democratic existence against authoritarianism and imperialism have been emerging in various parts of the world, with popular resistance persisting from Myanmar to Sudan and from Ukraine to Iran.
![[OPINION] Navigating the storms of repression: The resilience of young women rights defenders in Asia](https://www.rappler.com/tachyon/2024/03/women-rights-defenders-asia-mar-7-2024.jpg)
