Marches and protests were held across the globe on Friday to mark International Women’s Day under the slogan #BalanceforBetter, with calls for a more gender-balanced world.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a commemoration at the UN headquarters in New York that “remarkable progress on women’s rights and leadership” in the past few decades has sparked a backlash from “an entrenched patriarchy.”
“Nationalist, populist and austerity agendas add to inequality with policies that curtail women’s rights and cut social services,” he added.
Photo: AFP
Millions of others around the world demanded equality amid a persistent salary gap, violence and widespread inequality.
EUROPE
Police in Kiev detained three people as far-right demonstrators tried to provoke activists protesting domestic and sexual violence.
About 300 people gathered on Mykhailivska Square for the women’s rights demonstration. Several dozen far-right demonstrators stood nearby, holding placards reading “God! Homeland! Patriarchy!” and “Feminism is destroying Ukrainian families.”
In Spain, where women’s rights has become one of the hot topics in the run-up to a general election next month, many female employees did not show up to work. Others also halted domestic work or left to men to care for children and ill or elderly people.
In the evening, cities across the country lit landmark buildings with purple lights as hundreds of thousands poured into the streets.
“We are getting killed and we are getting lower salaries for being women, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Sara Baladron, a 27-year-old pharmacist joining the protest in central Madrid.
In Portugal, the Cabinet observed a minute of silence on Thursday as part of a day of national mourning it decreed for victims of domestic violence.
Portuguese police say that 12 women have died this year in domestic violence incidents — the highest number over the same period in 10 years.
In Germany, topless feminist protesters went to one of the nation’s most famous red-light districts in Hamburg and pulled down a metal barrier wall intended to keep out women other than prostitutes.
A half-dozen women belonging to the Femen activist group had the slogan “No brothels for women” written on their bare backs.
In France, the first Simone Veil prize went to a Cameroonian activist who has worked against forced marriages and other violence against girls and women.
Aissa Doumara Ngatansou was married against her will at age 15, but insisted upon continuing her studies. She has since turned her attention to victims of Boko Haram extremists.
The award is named for the trailblazing French politician and Holocaust survivor, who spearheaded the fight to legalize abortion.
LATIN AMERICA
Women in Argentina took to the streets by the tens of thousands, galvanized by the rejection last year of a bill that would have legalized abortion.
Many carried signs in support of abortion or with slogans such as: “My body doesn’t want your opinion.”
In Puerto Rico, hundreds clad in purple T-shirts protested to demand safer housing as the US territory struggles to recover from Hurricane Maria, while others held up signs with the names of more than 20 women reportedly killed by their partners last year.
Amid the protests, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello signed an executive order that would in part create a special agency to intervene in domestic violence cases and establish preventive patrols around the homes and workplaces of women awarded protection orders.
Thousands of marchers in Rio de Janeiro targeted Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has offended many women with his comments, as well as the nation’s record of violence against women.
“This year it is especially important to be here because we have a macho president,” psychologist Juliana Lopez said. “Brazil is champion in femicides. We must be on the street to be respected.”
Hundreds of women in Bolivia rallied in main cities, carrying giant undergarments bearing messages such as “underwear of an irresponsible and abusive father” and “underwear of a child molester,” as Chilean women also demanded access to free and safe abortions.
In Ecuador, President Lenin Moreno took the day to announce the creation of a bonus of about US$300 per month for the children of victims of femicides.
ASIA
In India, hundreds of women marched on the streets of New Delhi demanding an end to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs.
Thousands of Indian women are killed every year because the groom or his family feel the dowry of the bride is inadequate.
Political parties in India have for years been promising 33 percent of seats for women in the legislature, but they have yet to enact legislation to that effect.
In Jakarta, several hundred men and women carried colorful placards calling for an end to discriminative practices such as the termination of employment for pregnancy and exploitative work contracts.
Girls and women in Indonesia have equal access to education, but face higher unemployment, lower wages and poorer working conditions than men.
Both Koreas marked the day. In the South, women wearing black cloaks and pointed hats marched against what they call a “witch hunt” of feminists in a deeply conservative society.
College student Noh Seo-young said that South Korea struggles to accept that women are “also humans” and that women have to fight until they can “walk around safely.”
In North Korea, where Women’s Day is one of the few national holidays that is not explicitly political in nature, people dressed up for family photo shoots or bought roses for their mothers or wives.
NORTH AMERICA
US President Donald Trump honored International Women’s Day with a presidential message, saying that the US celebrates women’s “vision, leadership and courage,” and reaffirms its “commitment to promoting equal opportunity for women everywhere.”
On the eve prior, US first lady Melania Trump saluted women from 10 countries for their courage.
The recipients of the International Women of Courage Award included human rights activists, police officers and an investigative journalist.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo separately recognized women in Iran for protesting the requirement that they wear a hijab in public and a Ukrainian activist who died last year after she was attacked with sulfuric acid.
AFRICA
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who named one of the world’s few gender-balanced Cabinets last year, told a gathering that “women are the pillars of the nation and the least recognized for their sacrifices.”
In Nigeria, the US embassy hosted talks on sexual harassment that included a founder of the recent #ArewaMeToo campaign among women in the nation’s largely Muslim north.
In Niger, first lady Aissata Issoufou Mahamadou oversaw the awards in the Miss Intellect Niger contest, while women protested gender-based violence in Kenya’s capital.
“We haven’t gotten to a stage where women are comfortable to come out and say: ‘I was sexually abused,’” protester Esther Passaris said. “So what we need to do is slowly, slowly grow.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese