The Everyday Fight for Women’s Rights
International Women’s Day has arrived. Every year, the same story. The markets are full of various flowers, makeup and household appliances and the restaurants are also crowded. Husbands and children are in a dilemma about what to give their wives and mothers, and students are choosing gifts for their teachers.
On this day, in my city, women are given a lot of attention. Unfortunately, a large part of the people do not know the real reason for celebrating this day. We, the young journalists from Pegasus Student Voice, had the opportunity to get to know the true meaning of this day and to see this holiday from a different perspective.
On that occasion, we organized and made a visit to the non-governmental organization Women’s Forum – Tetovo, which has been actively working to improve the position of women in society for more than 20 years.
We received a warm welcome from the project manager Slagjana Josifoska, who took us through the work and activities of the association in detail. First, she presented us with their 3 main strategic priorities, which are:
– Economic empowerment of women in the Polog region,
– Prevention and protection from domestic violence and gender-based violence and
– Involvement of women and young people in decision-making processes at the local level.
We debated the third priority the most, because it is closest to our interests as young journalists and activists – trying to make positive changes in the community.
Then we moved on to talk about the main reason for which we had actually come.
We found out what the 8th of March is – International Women’s Day (8th of March) is a holiday celebrated annually as a focal point in the women’s rights movement. It gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights and violence and abuse against women.
But we also learned what March 8 is NOT. The project coordinator, Slagjana Josifoska, presented us statements on this topic from their partner organization Akcija Zdruzenska from Skopje.
– March 8 is NOT a day for a bouquet
– March 8 is NOT the day of the fairer gender
– March 8 is NOT a day for a little respect
– March 8 is NOT a day for sexism
– March 8 is NOT Mother’s Day
These statements completely changed our opinion on the subject and opened up new views and ideas about how the day should be celebrated.
We all discussed ways to properly honor the age struggle of women for fair salaries, dignified working conditions and respect. Some of the ideas were: Organizing panel discussions, public debates, public awareness campaigns, protest marches, and we even gave an idea for changes to the presentation of March 8 by schools. Instead of writing poetry and making greeting cards for mothers, let’s do research and presentations about women’s rights and their position in society, as well as drawings that symbolize women’s struggle throughout history for their rights and gender equality.
We found many common topics for further cooperation with the association which, as the only active women’s organization, represents the meaning of March 8, not only on this date, but every day.
