International Women’s Day is being observed worldwide to acknowledge the outstanding contributions by women in different fields across the globe with the theme “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women's Rights”.
In her statement for International Women's Day, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka highlighted 2020 as the year for gender equality and calls on everyone to tackle the persistent barriers against gender equality.
“We don’t have an equal world at the moment and women are angry and concerned about the future”, she said. “They are radically impatient for change. It's an impatience that runs deep, and it has been brewing for years”.
All our demands in an accessible, shareable format!#whyimarch #wedemand #AMdemands2020 #AuratMarch2020 pic.twitter.com/VhUXsD8P0L
— Aurat March - عورت مارچ (@AuratMarchKHI) March 7, 2020
The United Nations first celebrated International Women’s Day during International Women’s Year in 1975. By 1977, the UN and its member states declared March 8 as an official day for women’s rights and world peace.
The day will be observed in Pakistan as well with different seminars, conferences and events in the country to highlight the significance of the role of women in the society.
The main event marking the International Women's Day would be “Aurat Azadi March 2020” in all the major cities across Pakistan.
In Islamabad the day would be marked with rallies and a day-long programme featuring traditional food by women entrepreneurs, folk music and dance, artisan’s stalls, display of paintings by students and a seminar on women rights and law in Pakistan at the Lok Virsa.
Rallies would also be held in Karachi and Lahore at different locations.
The Aurat Azadi March 2020 will start at 03pm outside Islamabad press Club while in Lahore the participants would gather at Lahore Press Club at around 12pm.
In Karachi, the main event is scheduled to be held at Frere Hall in the evening.
Google celebrates International Women’s Day with doodle
Just like every special occasion, Google is celebrating International Women’s Day with a Google Doodle.
To mark the day, Goggle released an animated video designed to represent both the history of the day and the significance it has for women across generations.
The animation, which features a multilayered 3D paper mandala, was illustrated by New York and London-based guest artists Julie Wilkinson and Joyanne Horscroft and animated by Zurich-based guest animators Marion Willam and Daphne Abderhalden from DRASTIK GmbH.
The mandala’s black-and-white central layer reflects women around the world during the late 1800s to the 1930s amidst labour movements, while the second layer depicts women from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The final layer represents women from the 1990s to the present day, in the context of progress made from over 100 years of women’s rights movements.“It pays tribute to breaking barriers from former cultural and gender roles, as women continue to question, reclaim, and redefine ideas about the roles women take on in society,” Google says.
“As today’s women stand on the shoulders of those who have fought and made sacrifices in the generations past, they likewise carry the legacy of the movement forward. Here’s to the women across sectors, industries, nations, ages, and cultures, who persist tirelessly to take charge together—paving the way for future generations to come.”
