International women's day or IWD for short has been celebrated every year on march 8th since 1975. This year the theme is “Choose to Challenge”, each year there is a different theme. Its celebrated around the world in many different ways. More than 25 countries mark it as an official holiday, and it’s an unofficial holiday in at least a dozen more. There are many different countries that celebrate this, including Afghanistan, Nepal, Brazil and many more. Women get gifts and flowers, and there are parades and peaceful protests. In Europe, it remains a day when women get flowers and sometimes get the day off of work.
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“UN Women for Peace” March Marking International Women’s Day" by United Nations Photo is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Its important to realize that IWD is not just a day to give flows and get a day off from work but a day to look back at how far we’ve come and peacefully fight on how we can better this day in the future, seeing as there are still many injustices towards women. This year it is a bit different with COVID-19 still going on, we can’t do the normal activities in a safe manner that we would do any other year. Some ways to celebrate this year are:
#ChooseToChallenge and show your support on social media
Involve men and people who identify beyond the gender binary in the conversation and celebration
Host or attend an online panel
This is actually what our school did, AES celebrates IWD every year. This year it obviously has to be a little different. AES decided to have an online panel on the 6th of March to celebrate with others as well as inform others.
IDW has very specific colors, this includes: Purple, green and white. This is according to the official International Women's Day website. "Purple signifies justice and dignity. Green symbolizes hope. White represents purity, albeit a controversial concept. The colours originated from the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the UK in 1908," as stated on the website.
It was started by the Socialist Party in the United States in 1909 and was observed in New York, but it wasn’t until Clara Zetkin pushed for it to be a holiday in 1910 that it really took off across Europe. It was celebrated in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 1911 and eventually became a holiday that we celebrate around the world.
As you can see, international women’s day has been going strong for a good 120+ years. Many people will continue to celebrate this holiday as the years to come. Hopefully in the next few years we can make a big impact and have an even bigger movement safely.
See more from #Kiley here!
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