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| The logo of International woman's day. Photo by: UNFPA |
International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8th
of each year around the world. Again today it’s 8th March 2012. A
new circle added to International Women’s Day in the world. International
Women’s Day is marked around the world, to mark the economic, political and
social achievements that women around the world have achieved. International
Women’s Day is marked in my country Maldives too. Each year the United Nations
declares an overall International Women's Day theme. The theme of 2012 for
International Women’s Day is “Empower Rural Women – End Hunger and Poverty”. I
believe that this theme has an important meaning through the empowerment of
women and the success woman achieved across the world. Many organizations in the world do develop
their own themes that are more relevant to their local contexts at
International Women’s Day. For example in the continent Europe, the European
Parliament's 2012 theme for International Women’s day is "Equal pay for
work of equal value". This really senses a good theme for Europe as many
women are facing different issues and sexual abuse for woman is increasing in
Europe. Further "Connecting Girls,
Inspiring Futures" is the 2012 theme of the international women’s day website, a global
website for sharing International Women's Day news, events and resources. The national theme of Maldives for this year’s Women’s Day is, Women – Shaping the Nation.
IWD is the short form used for International Women’s Day in many organizations and parts of the world. As we are marking International Women’s Day, it’s a very important fact that we should know the history of this day. It is compulsory to know how this day began and how this day first got marked internationally. International Women's Day is actually called as International Working Women’s Day. International Working Women’s day (IWWD) started first as a Socialist political event. The first national Women's Day was observed on 28th February 1909 in the United States of America (USA) following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. An International Women's Conference (IWC) was organized in August 1910, to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International (SSI) in Copenhagen. Inspired in part by the famous American socialists, German Socialist Luise Zietz proposed the establishment of an annual 'International Woman's Day’ (IWD) and was seconded by Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified at that conference. 100 women delegates from 17 countries agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage, for women. On 18th March the following year 1911, International Women’s Day (IWD) was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Since then Americans continued to celebrate National Women's Day on the last Sunday in February. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. It defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. This Convention is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive rights of women As we are marking the International Women’s day, it’s a must to highlight on the major problems facing to women around the globe in the 21st century. United Nation’s “State of the world population report of 2011” by UNFPA states that, additional investments in adolescent reproductive health and empowerment of women are needed as world’s population reaches to 7 Billion. Judith W. Page the Associate Professor of the University of Texas at Austin's English Department and also the Director of the Center for Women and Gender Studies says that women alone cannot solve the epidemic of violence against them. She believes that the international community must develop strategies to address violence against women through a combination of legal reforms and economic incentives. "We must motivate the international community to take up the issue and recognize that gender-related violence is as serious a threat to the well-being of the world as the AIDS crisis or ethnic genocides" says Dr. Page who had a PhD from the University of Chicago with a long history of engagement with Women’s Studies.In a statement message by UN Secretary General Ban Ki today on International Women's Day, Ban urges the Governments, civil society and the private sector to commit to gender equality and the empowerment of women – as a fundamental human right and a force for the benefit of all. "The energy, talent and strength of women and girls represent humankind’s most valuable untapped natural resource" says at the Secretary-General's this year's message on International Woman's Day. At a the statement in his message on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day, our President Dr.Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik called on all citizens to be committed to help today’s girls become tomorrow's responsible leaders. He added that this was an opportunity to gear up women’s role in development and decision making by making responsible use of the freedom of expression. President Dr.Waheed urged all government offices and departments to pay special consideration to remove gender bias and increase gender empowerment in their work.
I believe personally that if in every International Woman’s Day event
held in 2012 includes girls in some way, then thousands of minds will be
inspired globally to respect woman as said in a proverb get respect and give. In different regions
the focus of International Women’s Day’ are ranged from general celebration of
respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's
economic, political and social achievements. Also in many regions of the world,
International Women’s day become simply an occasion for men to express their
love for women in a way such as the Mother's Day. However in this 21st century still
in some countries, women is demanding for the most basic rights such as the
right to vote, which is not even a constitutional right in some countries.
However, the political, human rights and social awareness struggles by women
worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.
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