Written by Louise Lehmann
Since 1975, the 8th of March has been celebrated all over the world as “International Women's Day”: a day to stand up and give attention to the rights of women. It was first recognized by the United Nations and is supposed to be a call to collective action – and a reminder that there is still a lot of work that has to be done in order to achieve gender equality.
This article answers three questions around this year’s International Women’s day and is a call for joined campaigning to all of you!
What are we fighting for?
Human rights are seen as universal and therefore apply to everyone. These rights include, for example, the right to live free from violence and discrimination, enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to be educated, to own property, to vote and the right to equal pay. Sadly, this promise of equal rights for all is not a reality for the many women and girls around the globe who still face discrimination based on their sex and gender. Many problems disproportionately affect women and girls, such as domestic violence, lower pay, lack of access to education, and many more.
Looking back at history, women have been fighting centuries-long battles for their rights, leading to many positive changes. However, it is important to remember how hard and slow this process often was and how fragmented the achievements are throughout the world.
For example, in 1983, New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level. The movement spread around the world (in the Netherlands, the right to vote for women was implemented in 1919) and today it is a right under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Despite this, it is still difficult for women in a lot of countries to exercise this basic right, for example in Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Another important area is that of sexual and reproductive rights. Women should live without fear of gender-based violence, including rape, forced marriage, forced abortion, or forced sterilization.
Unfortunately, this is still the daily life for many. Just to give an example, in many country's women are still unable to access safe and legal abortions or the circumstances to do so are very harsh, including Nicaragua, El Salvador and Poland.
In many countries around the world, women are denied their rights on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics. Many are also subjected to extreme violence, including sexual violence or so called “corrective rape” and “honor killings.”
This is a non-exhaustive list, but it shows that women's rights across the globe cannot be taken for granted and there is a need for continued action in all areas.
Why is it still important to go out and protest?
Since 1975, the situation for women worldwide has changed, but not strictly for better. To begin, it is important to remember the struggle for equality is a fight for women everywhere. COVID and its longer term impacts are still present, the food and energy crises from the war in Ukraine is continuing to impact those left most behind. Even climate disasters still demand a gender lens when adapting and mitigating impacts. It's therefore crucial that we join our forces, go out to set a sign, raise awareness, and bring all these inequalities to the top of political agendas.
Secondly, as Amnesty International Student Group Utrecht has addressed in the last article already, in some parts of the world, women cannot easily go out on the streets to protest, because they fear oppressive and violent government reprisals.
In Iran, a Kursish woman named Mahsa Amini was arrested, violently beaten and murdered by Iran’s so-called “morality” police. Mahsa’s death sparked widespread protests across Iran, to which Iranian forces responded with deadly violence.
The Amnesty International report, Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule, reveals how women who peacefully protested against the oppressive Taliban rules have been threatened, arrested, detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared.
Even before the Taliban’s Takeover in 2021, Afghanistan had one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, with 9 out of 10 experiencing at least one form of intimate violence in their lifetime. This is horrifying, but there was at least access to a network of shelters and support services. Now, this is no longer the case. Since the Taliban takeover, women and girls are increasingly being erased from public life. The network of support for gender-based violence survivors, which provided legal, medical and psychological support, collapsed. The Taliban’s recent decision to ban women from working with NGOs is pushing the country even further into a humanitarian crisis – and far away from protection of women's rights.
As Mahmud*, working in an international NGO focusing on education and child protection in Afghanistan, has told Amnesty International: “It is almost impossible to access women in the community (with the new Taliban`s decision). Women were identifying women beneficiaries. They were screening women beneficiaries. Women were helping deliver assistance to women.” Women are essential links to reach out to other women in the community. This is not only due to the Taliban’s gender segregation rules, but also due to preexisting cultural sensitivities. If they do not have access anymore, the situation is getting even worse.
The current events in Afghanistan and Iran should remind us that it is important to use our right to protest - not only for us, but also for those who can’t.
What is the theme for this year’s women’s day?
This year's UN Women's Day theme is: “DigitAll: Innovation and technology for gender quality”. The focus is on the impact of the digital gender gap (describes the noticeable gap in the degree of digitalisation between men and women) on widening economic and social inequalities. It will also put a spotlight on the importance of protecting the rights of girls and women in the digital space and addressing online gender-based violence.
As an Amnesty report from 2017 showed, the impact of online abuse on women is already alarming. “The internet can be a frightening and toxic place for women. It’s no secret that misogyny and abuse are thriving on social media platforms, but this poll shows just how damaging the consequences of online abuse are for the women who are targeted,” said Azmina Dhrodia, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Technology and Human Rights.
As the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression stated, ending the gender digital divide is critical to the full enjoyment of women’s rights. It is important to develop new technological solutions in a way promoting equality, human rights and dignity, as it has more and more impact in every part of our life with each passing year.
Additionally, technological development is closely connected to other “gaps” women still experience. One example is the “gender pay gap” where women are typically employed in less productive and lower-paid sectors and their jobs are more insecure. These jobs are also typically in sectors in which workers endure unsafe and unsanitary conditions. At the same time, women are underrepresented in those sectors which will play an important role as automation increases, such as the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sectors, which, due to gender biases, gender stereotypes and discrimination, remains strongly male-dominated.
What is planned for the 8th of March around Utrecht?
The Utrecht University is celebrating the International Women's Day, to address the inequality between men and women worldwide. The EDI Office is organizing a panel discussion on stereotyping in science and two workshops.
The Hogeschool Utrechts Diversity & Inclusion Network is organizing an annual meeting on this day to celebrate Women’s Day and to engage in a conversation about where we stand, where we want to go, and what is needed to achieve that. For the third edition, our theme is: “Safety at work and in the classroom”.
Amnesty's Utrecht Students Equality Committee will be joining the International Women's Day March in Utrecht and is organizing a sign-making event at 4pm, to join the march together. For more information, you can join their Whatsapp group for this event: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Fv7yWEDSE4vBABKSA0mKMz.