Protests mark global women's day

[Guest guest]

Protests mark global women's day

 

Women around the world have been taking to the streets to mark International

Women's

Day and raise awareness of the discrimination they still face.

 

A series of marches through 50 nations kicked off in Brazil to highlight a new

charter

signed by women's groups.

 

A woman at the centre of a recent gang-rape case in Pakistan led a rally

demanding an

end to "honour killings".

 

Men in Bangladesh held their own rally to show solidarity with women calling for

more

protection from acid attacks.

 

Film stars, politicians and cricketers were said to be among the 5,000-strong

male crowd

in Dhaka protesting against attacks that have disfigured an estimated 2,000

girls and

women in the past five years.

 

In Pakistan, a protest of several hundred people was led by Mukhtar Mai, who was

gang

raped in 2002 because her brother allegedly had sex with a woman from a socially

higher

tribe. Five of the accused were acquitted last week.

 

Her case is cited as a high-profile example of the violence facing women in the

name of

family honour.

 

Tsunami effects

 

Thousands of women, young and old, joined in a colourful march in Sao Paulo,

Brazil, to

commemorate the launch of a charter signed last December by international

women's

groups who are part of the feminist global network, World March of Women.

 

Similar rallies will carry the charter across some 50 other countries, the last

of which is

Burkina Faso, chosen for its poverty and poor protection of women's rights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If we are to change the historical legacy that puts women at a disadvantage in

most

societies, we must implement what we have learnt on a larger scale

Kofi Annan,

UN Secretary General

 

 

 

 

 

A forum was held in the Thai capital, Bangkok, to address the problems facing

women

survivors of December's tsunami.

 

"The Indian Ocean tsunami... has produced some very gender-specific aftershocks,

ranging from women giving birth in unsafe conditions to increased cases of rape

and

abuse," said Cholpon Akmatova, of the Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and

Development.

 

There had been speculation in Sweden - an acknowledged world leader in women's

rights

- that the day would be used to launch the country's first feminist party.

 

It was enough to prompt Prime Minister Goeran Persson to warn that it could

undermine

the ruling socialist coalition and bring in a "government that conducts policies

that are the

exact opposite of what a feminist party would want".

 

Romantic Russians

 

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said 2005 marked a milestone in the advancement

of

women, as it came 10 years after a major conference on the issue in Beijing.

 

He said there had been "tangible progress" in the past decade on many fronts

such as life

expectancy and primary education.

 

But new challenges have arisen - such as the targeting of women in conflict and

the

"terrifying" growth of HIV/Aids among women, especially young women.

 

"If we are to change the historical legacy that puts women at a disadvantage in

most

societies, we must implement what we have learnt on a larger scale," he said in

a message

to mark International Women's Day.

 

In Russia though, the emphasis was less on politics and more on romance.

 

The day was for a long time the closest thing Russians had to Valentine's Day,

and Moscow

florists were said to be doing a roaring trade as men splashed out for the women

in their

life.

 

 

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4328429.stm

Published: 2005/03/08 23:22:40 GMT

 

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