International Women’s Day, from slogan to reality

March 8, 1977 was designated as the International Women’s Day by the UN so that on this day, member states evaluate the status of women on the basis of their historical and national traditions.

This day reminds us of a history of political and social campaigns by women in the West against discrimination and for equal rights and better life conditions. But in the absence of virtuous role model for women to mould their life upon, the situation of women in various parts of the world indicates some other sorrowful facts. In this programme we look into some of these realities.  

Aside from the slogans of the West, the fact cannot be denied that the West has reduced women, in the name of freedom, into mere commercial and carnal objects, for satiating the greed for money and the lust of the western man. The Third World has been deceived and allowed itself to be exploited and enslaved by the West, in the name of women’s rights. The situation is alarming. For instance one can refer to the literacy rate of women worldwide. Based on the findings of the UN, the high rate of illiteracy of women and discrimination in many developing countries has become problematic. For instance, in Mali alone, only 25% of women are literate compared to 43 percent of literate men. In Chad we witness a similar situation, where the ratio of literacy between women and men respectively is 28% to 47%. After Chad, Ivory Coast, Pakistan and Yemen have the highest gender gap regarding the entrance of girls from primary school to secondary school. A point to note is that in the so-called developed countries, based on the western model, despite women overtaking men in education, when it comes to employment, women continue to face inequality. According to the World Economic Forum; women in many countries, with equivalent qualifications to men, are barred from taking jobs in offices. In these countries, men occupy 80% of organizational posts. Access to economic and commercial opportunities in countries that are at a disadvantage in terms of gender equality has created a deep gap between men and women. Moreover, working women often have the least income as compared to working men. For example, in Lebanon, men have annual income of over 26 thousand dollars while the annual income of women is just 7106.

This situation is not limited only to the developing countries. Marilyn French the author of the book “War against Women” offers significant information and statistics on the status of women in Western countries. The book says: Although in the US, 55% of women work on the basis of wages, all of them face discrimination. Ruth Pearson professor of Leeds University in Britain writes that although each female worker feels a sort of personal independence resulting from having a separate income of her own, all know that the wages they receive are much less than wages of male workers. In general we can say that significant gaps still exist between men and women in the labour market.

Women in the workplace also face lack of promotion opportunities, particularly in management positions. Women at work are also exposed to physical and psychological violence. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), sexual harassment in the workplace is the most obvious gender discrimination and violation of human rights. According to ILO reports, about 40% to 50% of women in the European Union states, in their workplace are subjected to sexual harassment and other types of violence.

In the Asia-Pacific countries, some 30 to 40 women face verbal, physical or sexual harassment at work. A research on the position of women in 11 European countries found that 30 to 50 percent of women are abused at the workplace. Among these countries, Austria tops the list with 81 percent of women abused at the workplace. In Britain the figure stands at 54 percent while in the US it is 44 percent.

Violence against women is not limited to workplace. In homes, violence against women is rampant in the West and other countries. This has endangered security of women in various countries, especially in the West which claims equal rights and privileges that do not exist. For instance, in a report released by Kate Bolongaro and titled "Chronic Violence against Women in Europe" shocking statistics about violence against women in the EU have been mentioned. The research which interviewed some 42 thousand women in 28 EU states, 55 percent of European women said they have been sexually abused, while 43 percent admitted psychological abuse. Denmark with 52 percent, Finland with 47 percent and Sweden with 46 percent, have the highest rates of violence against women.

Violence against women is widespread in the world. Results of researches conducted regarding violence against women in many parts of the world have shown that the violence which the American women are subjected to is similar to the violence which is carried out against women in Zimbabwe and Cambodia. At the same time, especially the West and in societies blindly following the western culture, families are disintegrating as a result of declining religious values, and rapid rise in divorce, promiscuity, abortion, lesbianism and sodomy. The situation is not expected to improve, since the International Women’s Day has no practical model of virtue to offer to women around the world, and when it advocates freedom, it means the animal freedom to indulge in any sordid behaviour as the wolves amongst the men like to feed upon them in the name of ill-defined liberties.

FK/AS/ME