On this Friday, March 8, International Women's Rights Day, rallies were held around the world, highlighting in particular the fight to end inequalities compared to men.
Some mobilizations took place in countries where campaigning for this cause is very poorly received, and can prove dangerous.
Pakistan
Hundreds of women demonstrated this Friday in Pakistan, a mobilization generally criticized in this country by conservative religious groups who accuse it of importing Western values.
Pakistani women gathered in major cities across the country for March 8 marches - called "Aurat" (woman), intended to highlight issues such as street harassment, forced labor and lack of women in Parliament.
AFP/Akram Shahid AFP or licensors
“We face all kinds of violence: physical, sexual, cultural where women are exchanged to settle disputes, child marriages, rape, harassment at work, in the streets,” said Farzana Bari, organizer main event in Islamabad, where hundreds of women gathered to dance, sing and listen to speeches.
“People in Pakistan are not punished, there is a culture of impunity,” she added.
Democratic Republic of Congo
For International Women's Rights Day, usually festive and colorful, thousands of Congolese women were dressed in black in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as a sign of mourning for the deaths of the conflicts in the east of the country.
“We, the women of Congo, refuse war, rape and the pillaging of our resources,” proclaimed the banners and banners brandished by several thousand of them who marched in the streets of Bukavu, capital of South Congo. Kivu, one of the eastern provinces ravaged by decades of armed violence.
#DRC Bukavu: the day of March 8 was commemorated Friday through a peaceful march in the streets of the city of #Bukavu, province of South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in compassion with the population from this part of the country and to castigate and… pic.twitter.com/M5vcWeoK4d
— acpcongo.com (@acprdc_Officiel) March 8, 2024
“We are in black and we are marching to express our anger, our dismay,” said Jeannine Kabyahura, women's rights activist, among thousands of others, from all walks of life - politicians, civil servants, displaced people, soldiers, police... - who marched further north, in Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri.
“Many women are killed in Ituri.
For this year 2024 alone, 68 have already been killed by armed groups in the territory of Djugu and Irumu,” said Jeannine Kabyuhara.
Afghanistan
Small groups of Afghan women demonstrated discreetly for International Women's Day, with the Taliban authorities' crackdown on them preventing them from taking to the streets.
In several provinces, some women came together to demand that these restrictions be lifted, said the Purple Saturdays Movement, a women's rights group in Afghanistan.
In Takhar province (north-east), images published by feminist activists show seven women holding papers in front of their faces, with the inscription “Rights, Justice, Freedom”.
In Balkh (north), several women also held signs saying "Don't give the Taliban a chance", in front of a banner with the words "Save the women of Afghanistan".
In this video, Takhar protesters are seen shouting slogans on the roads, Taliban is the enemy of the young generation!#NoToTaliban pic.twitter.com/ThGuE4lDpR
— ًSanam kabiri (@sanam_kabiri) March 8, 2024
South Africa
Women responding to the appeal of the South African Jewish Council demonstrated in Johannesburg to denounce rapes and abuses committed by Hamas on Israeli hostages in Gaza, and the silence of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Nearly 200 women and activists marched under a blazing late southern summer sun under the banner “Me Too except for the Jews”.
AFP/Olympia De Maismont AFP or licensors
“We are deeply saddened by the horrors and atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists,” said one of the organizers, Gabriella Farber Cohen, accusing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of hypocrisy.
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Recalling that the Head of State regularly speaks on the issue of violence against women in a country which experiences one of the highest rates of rape in the world, Farber Cohen regretted that "in 154 days (of conflict,
Editor's note)
), he did not say a word, even to condemn the sexual violence that these Israeli women endured.”