Women"s Day marked worldwide by AFP / UN News 4:31am 9th Mar, 2009   March 9, 2009 (AFP)    Women rallied worldwide on Sunday to demand equal rights and protest against domestic violence and growing poverty in the global economic crisis as they marked International Women"s Day.    Thousands gathered in public squares from Bangalore to Kinshasa to the capitals of Europe, drawing attention to discrimination and fears facing women in their respective countries.    For Europeans, deteriorating financial security in the face of recession has made life more precarious for women workers. "Masculine globalisation equals female poverty" read a banner at a march in Madrid, while in Warsaw calls for equality were linked to pay cheques: "Equal rights, equal pay."    "When, in times of crisis, jobs become scarce, women are often the ones who are the first to go," said Helga Schwitzer, a leader of Germany"s powerful IG Metall union.    "Women must not be the losers in the crisis," she told a gathering in Emden, northwest Germany, as she noted that women still earn on average 23 per cent less than men.    US President Barack Obama said women are "vital" to solving world challenges and called for "the full and active participation of women around the world".    His former White House rival, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, celebrated women"s untapped potential but lamented that "no nation in the world has yet achieved full equality for women".    The French government sought to raise awareness by releasing a book for 18-year-olds titled "Respect Girls", warning teenagers not to buy into stereotypes in advertising and provide information on sexual harassment and equal opportunities.    "These few pages will help you know your basic rights so that you can translate this into positive and ambitious life choices," Valerie Letard, state secretary for women"s issues, at a meeting in Paris.    For women mainly outside the West, however, their very existence is in peril from violence and cultural attitudes that endanger their lives.    Indian activists in Bangalore, in India"s south, met in parks and open areas to protest a spate of violent attacks on women by religious extremists in the name of "moral policing".    In Africa, women called attention to the plight of their sex in war zones. Some 10,000 women marched in the streets of Kinshasa to protest massive and savage violence against women and children using them as a weapon of war.    "The desires of Congolese women are clear: stop rape, stop HIV/AIDS, and stop other human rights violations against women and children," said Marie-Ange Lukiana Mufwankolo, family minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo.    Muslim women around the world are facing a "growing crisis" as Islamic governments fail to honour commitments to end inequality and violence against them, an independent UN expert warned.    Yakin Erturk, the United Nations rapporteur on violence against women, told a weekend conference in Malaysia that women must demand their governments carry out pledges to grant them equal rights and ensure their safety.    UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this week one woman in five around the globe has been a victim of rape or attempted rape, and that in some countries one woman in three has been beaten or subjected to some kind of violent act.    UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today added his voice to a chorus of United Nations officials calling for an end to the routine violence suffered by women and girls around the world, in a message marking the International Day for Women.    In some countries, as many as one in three women will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day, whose theme this year is “Women and Men: United to End Violence Against Women.”    “We must stop the habitual and socially ingrained violence that mars lives, destroys health, perpetuates poverty and prevents us from achieving women"s equality and empowerment,” he stressed.    Last year the Secretary-General launched a global campaign “Unite to End Violence Against Women” ending in 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of internationally agreed objectives which include eradicating poverty, achieving universal gender equality in education and reversing the rate of HIV/AIDS incidence.    “Violence against women is also linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS,” said Mr. Ban. He explained that not only are large numbers of women in some countries forced to have sex, but “Women and girls are also systematically and deliberately subject to rape and sexual violence in war.”    “Violence, and particularly sexual and gender-based violence, is one of the defining characteristics of contemporary conflict,” said Ron Redmond, the spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.    Mr. Ban noted that “Death, injury, medical costs and lost employment are but the tip of an iceberg. The impact on women and girls, their families, their communities and their societies in terms of shattered lives and livelihoods is beyond calculation.”    To change the mindsets and socially ingrained habits of generations will not be easy and will take the collective force of individuals, organizations and governments, added the Secretary-General.    “We must work together to state loud and clear, at the highest level, that violence against women will not be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstance,” he said, adding that “We need a positive image of women in the media. We need laws that say violence is a crime, that hold perpetrators accountable and are enforced.”    In another statement, UN Children"s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Ann Veneman underlined the significant role men and boys have to play in ending violence against women and called for putting in place programmes and activities to educate them.    Michael Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, called for gender equality to be at the core of all the world body"s actions, saying that it is not only necessary for social justice but also for achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.    To mark the occasion in Afghanistan, up to 15,000 women gathered in Kandahar, Bamyan, Kabul, Herat, Mazar, Daikundi and Jalalabad wearing blue scarves to pray for peace.    Speaking at the country"s main event at the Amani High School in Kabul the Special Representative for of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Kai Eide said, “Afghanistan needs its women in order to make the progress we all seek.”    In Somalia, many women and girls are victims of violence, human trafficking, beatings, rape, child marriage, and female genital mutilation and remain silent for fear of being ostracized or killed by their own families, said Mark Bowden, UN Resident and Humanitarian.    “Violence against women and girls is not a women"s issue, it is an issue that concerns and diminishes us all. No custom, tradition or religion can justify cruel and degrading treatment,” said Mr. Bowden.
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