Culture

Celebrating the world's women: A NowPublic roundup

by Kaitlin | March 8, 2007 at 11:10 am

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UPDATE: Take a look at our great photo slideshow of IWD activities all over the world.

Today is International Women's Day, and all over the world women (and the men and women who love them) are celebrating what it means to be a woman. With this celebration also comes a reexamination of the problems still facing women worldwide.

See NowPublic member blueshoe's great coverage of the local celebration, which is bittersweet as always for the women of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

There's also a post by mnepali on the women's movement, human trafficking and how things have changed (or haven't) over the years.

And mardoux highlights some poignant statistics about rape and how it's viewed by countries the world over.

Jatinder provides a very interesting perpective on the status of Indian widows.

There are sure to be more stories in and around the status of women as the day goes on, so I'll watch for these and post them as they become available. In the meantime, grab a woman you love and give her a big hug.

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's. Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike.

For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as International Women’s Year by the United Nations.

Women's organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

IWD is now an official holiday in Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.