International Women’s Day: One Date, Billions of Contexts · Global Voices
International women day in Egypt via Al Jazeera English and Wikimedia. Creative commons.
For most Internet users around the globe, March 8 might start with a visit to Google's daily doodle, drawing attention to one of the world's most recognizable celebration of civic rights — International Women's Day.
Although the international holiday was first spearheaded by socialist groups, and focused on working women, the day has now taken on distinctive forms in different locations all over the world, shedding its original essentialist connotations and emphasising specific issues that women in incredibly varied societies face.
In Eastern Europe, March 8 is a mesh of Mother's Day and Women's Day. Traditionally, it is a day during which men prepare a small gift for the most important women in their lives, including their mothers, wives, and female colleagues.
In recent years, however, women have started marking the day their own, using the day to organise events that raise awareness or promote women's professional roles. Google's March 8, 2015 doodle certainly captures that spirit, showing that in many countries of the world the day has grown into an appreciation of the roles women play in public as well as private contexts.
Breaking down the final barriers
Some events organised for International Women's Day around the world managed to raise awareness about the finer issues women face in modern societies, allegedly without intending to. Australia's Liberal National Party (LNP) booked a venue to celebrate the day “simply on the basis of availability, price and flexibility in a CBD location”, the party said.
As it turns out, the venue the party chose is an elite men's only club in Brisbane. 157
Upon realizing the irony inherent in choosing that venue, the Australian Parliament took time to discuss the matter and had some fun with it.
The leader of LNP, which boasts over 6,000 women among 14,000 members, is current Prime Minister of Australia and federal Minister for Women, <PERSON>.
<PERSON> swiftly took the opportunity to claim the event as yet another triumph for women. As party members prepare to discuss the role of women in Australian politics at all levels, he said, what better way to begin than by breaking down some of the final men-only barriers standing in their way?
Women's issues are no longer gender-specific
In other parts of the world though, battles over gender are fierce ones over basic rights. Organisations like International Media Support (IMS) work to draw attention to women whose gender, unfortunately, seems to come second to the labels that not only their own societies but the international community as a whole has placed on them.
In a photo piece on their website, IMS features five ordinary yet exceptional young Kurdish women from Syria who want to show that “the word refugee does not even begin to define their identities” and they would like to be seen “as women first”. In just a few quotes and a dozen photos, the piece not only changes the perception most of the world has about refugees, but also about the role of women in Syrian society.
Similarly, Human Rights Watch's most popular tweet on civil rights for the week beginning March 2, linked to a <PERSON>'s article about a group of Afghan men who marched through the country's capital Kabul to draw attention to women's rights issues, dressed head-to-toe in bright blue burqas.
Afghan men don burqas & march in Kabul for women's rights http://t.co/MLAyiGEoIw #IWD2015 pic.twitter.com/lEL8YI8wMt
— <PERSON> (@astroehlein) March 6, 2015
One of the activists, a young man of 29, said: “Our authorities will be celebrating International Women's Day in big hotels, but we wanted to take it to the streets.”
The small but significant march earned different reactions from passersby. Some women commented that they did not need men representing them, a middle-aged woman said she wore the burqa by choice even though her sons and husband had attempted to stop her wearing it, while others lauded and supported the small group of male activists.
Whether or not one agrees with the statement, this is yet another poignant example of how raising awareness of women's rights draws attention to the changes that different societies are going through, as well as the fact that feminism is not a one-gender movement. A video of the march, via AJ+, is available on Facebook.
Women unite against political conflict
International Women's Day is not just about bridging gender gaps, but also about bridging cultural and political gaps, usually through a demonstration of unity among women. 157