Hello Ladies...

It's International Women's Day. A single day for (more than?) half the species might strike some of you as a little stingy, and indeed many organisations (including, rather disingenuously, the White House) mark International Women's Week. Unfortunately, I'm not organised enough to come up with a week of posts on women's right. In lieu of such a series, I bring you a single post as part of Blog Against Sexism Day.

It would be easy to list assorted attacks on womens rights across the world (e.g. the global gag rule, Nicaragua's ban on abortion, female genital mutilation in the Middle East and Africa etc.), but in many ways, what's much more interesting is the multitude forms of resistance to these practices which have emerged around the world: in the US, mothers are organising for rights considered fundamental in most other western countries; in Afghanistan, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), once heralded as the bearers of the country's future by western imperialists, but long-since forgotten by their fair-weather allies, continue to struggle against religious fundamentalism; last December, 2-300 people marched through Ipswich, following the murder of five prostitutes; in Iraq, women are organising in the face of the deteriorating situation and death threats; in Iran, women continue to protests against the regime, despite state repression.

Women continue to play a crucial role in every other social struggle you can think of. While they may not always get the headlines or the prominent roles, their presence is no less essential for that. (Platitudinous? Perhaps, but true.) The struggles for social justice, peace, freedom and good things generally won't amount to a hill of beans if it doesn't fully involve and account for half the species. My contribution to that involvement and accounting is this post, don't say I never do anything for you.