MADRID: Women took to the streets from Kabul to Bangkok on Wednesday to mark International Women’s Day and defend rights that are coming under increasing attack. With the Taliban government’s banning of women from universities in Afghanistan and the Ukraine war’s impact on women, there are many reasons to protest.
In Afghanistan, which the UN called the “most repressive country in the world” for women’s rights, AFP saw around 20 women holding a rare protest in the capital Kabul.
Marches also took place in Thailand and Indonesia, where a few dozen women gathered in front of the country’s parliament to urge lawmakers to pass a long-awaited bill to protect domestic workers.
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky praised women for taking a central role in defending their country against Russia’s war. He thanked “all women who work, teach, study, rescue, heal, fight — fight for Ukraine.”
Global progress on women’s rights is “vanishing before our eyes,” UN chief Antonio Guterres warned, saying gender equality would take another three centuries to achieve. — AFP
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