International Women’s Day is a day set aside annually to talk about women’s struggle, celebrate the struggles won and give focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, sexual and gender based violence and abuse against women.
The last #16DaysofActivism was themed “Towards 30 years of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: UNiTE! Invest to Stop Violence Against Girls and Women! #No excuse”. This means that, thirty years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted unanimously by 189 countries as an agenda for women’s empowerment that is now considered the key global policy document on gender equality, violence against women continue to thrive. More than 40,000 women’s rights activists and leaders convened at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women to set a goal to achieve the full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power. One would have thought we would have gotten it all by now, after all, it takes just a spark or step to awaken others, but that is not our reality.
Almost 30 years later, a governor in Nigeria has made it a criminal offense for a woman to go out with wearing brassiere and pants as underwear under their clothes. Asides the fact that bras are often uncomfortable to wear, I hope he would be able to arrest all women on 13th of October “No Bra day” which is a day for Breast Cancer Awareness. Even when there are health campaigns and body autonomy awareness to free the breasts as much as possible and encourage women to become more comfortable with their bodies and less self-conscious about their appearance, most of these campaigns have met this policy with silence.
The last two weeks were all about Senator Natasha and and her obvious harassment in the hands of Senate President Akpabio – an issue that shows that even the few women in power are still being harassed. Thirty years after the declaration, women still do not have that economic and political power to escape harassmrnt. Women are still subjected to inequality, femicide, injustice, still do not have access to basic education in some parts of the world. Women are still underrepresented.
According to UNICEF, 122 million girls are out of school, including 34 million of primary school age, and 87 million of secondary school age. The gaps are starker in countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, where girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys, and at the secondary level, are 90 percent more likely to be out of school. It still feels like a crime for the female child to menstruate, because of period poverty which makes it hard for them to go to school when their period has started.
The International Women’s Day does not just remind us about women in political seats, those in boardrooms or those who have done well for themselves, but most importantly reminds us about women who have done excellently well for society in time past. The struggle of the Abeokuta women led by Funmilayo Ransom Kuti reminds us of our strength, the struggle led by Margaret Ekpo reminds us of our resilience, the struggle of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela of South-Africa reminds us of our power. They all remind us that we have the ability to win even though we are yet to win.
Ours is not to lament, but to get up, stand up, and fight patriarchy.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
-Precious Gift Erupre
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