Women’s Space has a wonderful collection of videos honoring women (we shamelessly borrowed this one, but go to Women’s Space to see the others):

FPN member Jane Roberts, co-founder of the 34 Million Friends of the United Nations Population Fund, weighs on on gender equality and maternal health.

IWD reflections from FPN Director Lucinda Marshall on her blog, Reclaiming Medusa.

CNN weighs in here.

Protesting in Uganda

Ugandan women are protesting, not celebrating because as they elegantly point out, equality remains elusive.

My commentary gets picked up in Costa Rica.

RAWA’s statement.

Thoughts about IWD in Nepal.

Antonia Zerbisias in the Toronto Star.

The Greenbelt Movement celebrates IWD.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbiner of Moms Rising shares her thoughts on why the U.S. needs IWD.

Gender Across Borders has links to all the blogs that participated in the IWD blogathon.

International Women’s Day is in part a day of celebration and also one to give us pause, here are a few worthy shares from my inbox on this important day:

• IWD in Photos
• 177 Women Endure Abuse in Burmese Prisons
• Reflections of an Armenian Woman
• Germaine Greer:  Change is a Feminist Issue
• Louis Nowra Needs a Good Vajazzling (an hilarious smackdown of a truly dreadful review of Germaine Greer’s work in the Australian magazine, The Monthly (yeah I know, spot on title so to speak)–fair warning, contains language)
• Gender and Land Rights
• Women’s Rights Trampled in Afghanistan
• Women Still Being Overlooked by Media
• Gloria Feldt on Equal Rights
• Stand Up with the Women of Papua New Guinea
• The Feminization of Poverty
• Iranian Women Human Rights Defenders Undeterred by Detention
• Sex-Trafficking and Military Conflict
• 2009 Domestic Violence Census Report

As part of the observance of International Women’s Day this year, the United Nations, has chosen “Equal rights, equal opportunity: Progress for all.” as its theme.  Sadly, in large measure  achieving these ideals is still very much a work in progress.

While to be sure, there has been much progress in the last few decades, women still hold only a small fraction of elected offices.  Women earn pennies on the dollar earned by their male counterparts while juggling the overwhelming burden of caring work for no pay at all.

In parts of the world, women are raped and murdered when they go to fetch water and firewood for their families.  Schools for girls are fire-bombed and acid is thrown in the faces of girls who have the temerity to want an education.

When women are raped, they are accused of being  adulterers and are stoned to death  or in other ways killed to salvage their family’s honor.  In many countries, young girls are still forced to undergo Female Genital Mutilation.

Abortion is still illegal, unsafe and/or inaccessible for many women and hundreds of thousands of women die unnecessarily from childbirth related reasons.  Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be attacked by fellow soldiers than by any enemy and women, particularly in Southeast Asia, are all too often victimized by sex traffickers and forced into prostitution near military bases or are trafficked into domestic slavery.

There is a word for this and it is misogyny.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where things mostly operate on the notion that power comes from winning battles and controlling resources and people.  Implicitly in such a system, you can not allow those you want to control to become equal.  And in this world, there is a long history of men asserting control over women.

The only way this changes is to redefine empowerment.  Imagine a world in which we lay claim to power that comes from the worthiness of how we conduct our own lives and how we connect with the world around us, rather than insisting that we must control things.  For there to be equality of rights and opportunity, that is the paradigm change we will need to make.  And in doing so, we can begin to become fully empowered and leave the damage of misogyny behind us.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!

The Feminist Peace Network is proud to participate in the Gender Across Borders Blog for IWD.  To read more more fabulous blogs, click here.  For more International Women’s Day coverage on the Feminist Peace Network, click here.

In San Jose, CA/US:

An ad hoc committee to celebrate Iranian women’s movement will host a rally in honor of International Women’s Day on March 7, 2010. The event is to be held in recognition of the courage and resilience Iranian women have shown during the last thirty one years of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Sunday, March 7, 2010, 1-4 pm
Cesar Chavez Plaza, Downtown San Jose

Wonderful photos from the Million Women Rise march in London:

From WILPF:

On March 8, International Women’s Day, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) marks our commitment and continued affirmation this day and every day for the full recognition and fulfillment of women’s human rights and security in all spheres.

International Women’s Day is a day to acknowledge women’s rights for equal participation in economic and political decision-making, to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of women, and to denounce gender discrimination and gender violence.

WILPF rejects the notion that gender equality has been achieved. On the 15th anniversary of the historic Beijing World Conference on Women, the United Nations must move without further delay to implement changes that it has repeatedly recognized as critical to fulfilling its mandate of working for gender equality as a crucial component of development, human rights, peace, and security.

UN Member States must also be held accountable for the commitments they have already made to women. This year marks the tenth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict.

WILPF calls for full implementation of all four United Nations Security Council resolutions on women, peace and security (UNSCR 1325, 1820, 1888, and 1889).

IWD in Toronto (love the black and white photography!):

The Independent (UK) looks at 100 women who changed the world and also analyzes how much progress we’ve made when it comes to women’s rights.

Amnesty supporters in London stage a die-in to highlight maternal mortality.

And finally, from a collection of SMS messages in honor of IWD:

Where she can be flying
She don’t ask for the wings,
Just break up her rings

Judy Rebick reflects on feminism:

In the end, my conclusion is that the inter-locking systems of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism will maintain the oppression of women.  There is only so far we can go without challenging all of them.  That’s why I am thrilled to see the women’s movement become more global, more diverse, more radical and more integrated into other movements for social and environmental change.  Even if in the short time, we are less effective in making change, in the long term the change will be deeper and broader.

From Madre:

Honoring the lives of feminist Haitian leaders who died in the massive earthquake on January 12th, will be the focus of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2010, which is also the 100th anniversary of this annual celebration.

The main activity will take place that day in Plaza Catherine Flon in Champ de Mars in the center of Port au Prince, a park that symbolizes Haitian women’s participation to the war towards independence two centuries ago.

It is being organized by the Haitian women’s organizations locally to acknowledge and honor the human suffering of the catastrophe in Haiti, promore feminist values based on the human rights of all, the struggle for well being of all in Haiti and urban planning, reaffirm feminist struggles despite the loss of significant feminist leaders, strengthen solidarity and display a MEMORIA which will take the form of testimonies, a mural and a slide show.

Women’s groups around the world are asked by the Haitian women’s movement to organize a memorial activity as part of their celebration of International Women’s Day in their countries and communities.

Tamar Abrams asks us to focus our attention on ending maternal deaths this IWD:

We mustn’t let this critical discussion get bogged down in ideology about abortion or contraceptives or politics. I challenge you to look into the eyes of your own mother or sister or daughter on March 8 and say, “Sorry, maternal deaths are simply not a prority.” Or you could join me in celebrating International Women’s Day with a pledge to invest in the health and well-being of women.

Oxfam has this round up of news items that includes this thought-provoking tidbit:

The UN estimates that women grow more than half of all the food in the world. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, they produce up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs. In Asia, they account for around 50 percent of food production. Despite their contributions to the global food supply, women farmers are often undervalued and overlooked in agricultural development strategies.

From the U.N. a status report on UNSCR 1325:

(T)he record of implementing resolution 1325 has fallen markedly short of expectation. As the 10 year anniversary approaches, women and girls continue to be victims of gender-based violence, especially sexual violence, during armed conflict and in post-conflict settings. They are raped, tortured, abducted and humiliated, and many are ostracized after the conflicts end because they either have been abused or have become pregnant. In this regard, implementing resolution 1325 cannot be seen in isolation from Security Council resolutions 1888 and 1820 (adopted in 2008 and 2009 respectively) since resolution 1325 focuses on the operationalization of resolution 1820. Through these resolutions, the Security Council sent a clear message that sexual violence in situations of armed conflict will not be tolerated.

Cessation of hostilities does not often guarantee an end to violence against women and girls. On the contrary, evidence shows that even after conflict has ended, high levels of sexual and gender-based violence tend to persist, creating long-term threats to security and to women’s health, livelihoods, and their ability to participate in reconstruction and peacebuilding efforts.

The persistence of violence against women in situations of armed conflict detracts from the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whose targets in many ways are intertwined with the goals of resolution 1325. If girls live in fear of attending school because of the heinous violations that are often typical in armed conflicts, their access to education will remain unequal to that of boys and compromise MDG 2: achieving universal primary education. Sexual violence during armed conflict carries high risks of HIV infection and threatens the achievement of MDG 6: combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Achieving MDG targets will also be irrelevant to the women and girls whose human rights are persistently violated by gender-based violence which has become an inseparable part of armed conflict today. Indeed, the achievement of MDG 3: promoting gender equality and empower women, requires the global community to intensify action to ensure that women’s bodies are no longer an extension of the battleground during periods of armed conflict.