Calling for Change on International Women’s Day

“I have been silent, but not mute.

My existence has been marginalized.

But now I am in the limelight.

I had a choice to learn many languages.

But all I chose to speak was in voices of

hope, courage, determination, and fearlessness.”

Here are few of the women’s voices from around the world on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2009.

Hillary Clinton in Times of India, wrote about how important it is to invest in women and urges to stop Violence against women.

Just a few months ago, a young girl in Afghanistan was on her way to school when a group of men threw acid in her face, permanently damaging her eyes, because they objected to her seeking an education. Their attempt to terrorise the girl and her family failed. She said, “My parents told me to keep coming to school even if I am killed.”

That young girl’s courage and resolve should serve as an inspiration to all of us – women and men – to continue to work as hard as we can to ensure that girls and women are accorded the rights and opportunities they deserve.

For the first time, Shobha De seems to be making sense and comments on how domestic violence is still alive in India and we cannot gloss over it anymore.

More than 60 years after Independence, 10 women are burnt every hour in our great country, according to the Lancet, a reputed British Medical journal.

Burn one, get one free. Yes? The horrible answer may be just that. Despite these grisly statistics being available to us, we continue to pretend all is well in our society. Less than 9% of our women have a shot at higher education. Coincidence? Cultural bias? In this day and age?

Disappointingly enough, with the elections round the corner, not a single political party has thought it important to address women’s issues, forget reservations. It is as if women don’t exist – not even as a vote bank. They are making a huge mistake. A society that marginalises its female population is a society in decline. Domestic violence remains India’s best kept dirty secret.

I hope the change comes far sooner than later…