Support your Mother, Sister, and Women in your Community; March 7, 2008

Each year on 8 March, women worldwide celebrate this day as a day of identity and equality, a day of freedom and resistance to oppression, violence, abuse, honour killing and rape. However, hundreds of International Women's Day events occur all around the world. IWD events range from small random informal gatherings to large-scale highly organised events. All celebrate women's advancement and highlight the need for continued vigilance and action.
Gender discrimination and oppression against women in today’s cultural, religious and political settings has remained much the same throughout the 20Th and 21st century. This lack of progress can be attributed to the attitude and behavior of men toward women as men continue to dominate all aspects of the cultural, economical, and political system. The history we have built is full of disappointment and humiliation for many reasons and one of those is the treatment of women.
This lack of progress is illustrated in the continuous acts of violence towards women in many countries throughout the world. Violence against women due to the traditional, religious, and cultural ideologies are continuously justified in many communities across the world. Hence women continuous to face violent acts such as sexual assault, rape and honor killings worldwide. Nonetheless, religious and cultural traditions are the most powerful ideologies attributed the oppression and deprivation of women from their fundamental freedoms and rights. This discriminatory attitude has a long and tragic history that has continued to face resistance by women activists. Gender discrimination and oppression has continued to exist for decades because these ideologies have not yet been abandoned by patriarchs.
However, religions and cultural gender discrimination still continues to be a huge social issue and remain a huge matter for many. Throughout, the past and present women have been perpetuated as an object, weak, and less intelligent due to their sex. Therefore, they continue to be dominated member and one of the groups most victimized throughout history and still continues to be, because violence behaviors of men toward women still an ongoing process. Yet significant gaps in protection remain. Many countries fail to recognize some form of violence against women as crimes. Therefore, oppression and murderous violence against women has perpetuated through social practice of culture, religions and politics. This is a huge disappointment to women but fortunately has not stopped or weakened women activists in their goal for social, political, economical, and gender equality. Today, they stand behind their platforms to end racism, sexism, classism, and oppression and achievement of social justice. It is time to stand up and raise your voice with your sisters, mother, and community to stop violence, honour killing, abuse and rape against women. It needs all of us men and women to fight and end classism, sexism, racism, and oppression against our sisters and mothers.