Women demonstrate for their rights, eyes on Ukraine

(Madrid) From Pakistan to Spain, tens of thousands of women marched across the world on Tuesday to defend their rights, as all eyes were on the never-ending lines of women and children fleeing war in Ukraine .

In the station of Przemysl, in Poland, a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border, which thousands of Ukrainian refugees cross every day, a Franciscan religious offered red and yellow tulips on Tuesday to women who had just arrived.

“It is very important that today, in this difficult moment, someone speaks to them to tell them ‘you are very important'”, explained to this religious, Kordian Szwarc, who came to symbolically celebrate the international day for human rights. women.

“We know that their men are very, very far from here and that there is no one to tell them that they are important and beautiful. This is my mission today,” he added.

A gesture of attention welcomed with a big smile by Lilia Kysil, a 22-year-old student who arrived from Kyiv. “It’s the first time I feel like I’m living a special day” since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces on February 24, she said, a tulip in her hand.

According to the UN, the bar of two million people fleeing the fighting to find refuge abroad was crossed on Tuesday in Ukraine. In this country, plagued by incessant fighting, soldiers also offered tulips to women near some checkpoints in Kyiv, according to an AFP journalist.

“Violence of bullets”, “sexual violence”

In Madrid, where women’s rights day is marked by massive protests every year, several thousand people marched waving banners calling for equality and placards reading: “Stop Putin” and “No of war “.

The demonstrators, some wearing purple superhero capes, marched to the rhythm of the drums at the Madrid town hall, bathed in purple light. “Nothing scares a man more than a fearless woman,” they intoned.

In Paris, the demonstration also brought together several thousand people – 35,000 according to the organizers – around placards proclaiming: “neither women nor the earth are territories of conquest” or “angry feminist, I will not let it happen”.

Before the start of the demonstration, the activists read on the microphone a letter sent by “Russian feminists” calling for “taking a stand against the war”. The conflict in Ukraine “brings bullet violence, but also sexual violence”, they said.

In Istanbul, several hundred people gathered for a feminist night march, punctuated by clashes with the police, who used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

In Pakistan, a few thousand women gathered in big cities like Islamabad, Karachi or Lahore, the cultural capital of the country, where the authorities had tried to cancel the event.

In a still very conservative and patriarchal society, the March 8 marches have been poorly received since the first edition in 2018. In 2020, Islamists threw stones at protesters in Islamabad, injuring some and forcing others to stand. sheltered.

This year, it was particularly important to be present, because “we have had several cases recently where those who committed violence against women got away with it without consequence”, said in Lahore Sairah Khan, a 23-year-old student. years.

In neighboring Afghanistan, March 8 was celebrated with great discretion, with feminist activists living in fear of being arrested by the new Taliban regime that has swept away 20 years of freedom won by women since its return to power on August 15th.

“The Taliban have taken heaven and earth from us,” said an activist from the Unity and Women’s Solidarity group, on condition of anonymity.

In Colombia, thousands of demonstrators celebrated in Bogota the recent decriminalization of abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in a colorful rally.

In Mexico City, tens of thousands of women have swept through the city center demanding justice for the growing number of femicides and domestic violence.

The mothers of femicide victims chanted the names of their daughters. Some protesters dressed in black were throwing balls of pink and purple paint at monuments along the main avenue.

In Santiago, Chile, the next first lady, Irina Karamanos, marched alongside a huge crowd of women gathered under the slogan “For the life they owe us”.

“Democracy in the country, in the house and in the bed”, could we read on the banner carried by M^me Karamanos and several ministers of the future left-wing government of Gabriel Boric, who will take office this week in a government he has promised “feminist”.