Happy International Women's Day 2024

To celebrate IWD today I have been asked to speak at a gathering created by the members of the Afghan Women’s Centre here in Montreal, Canada. As I thought about what to say on where we stand now, IWD 2024, my thoughts go immediately to all of you, wanting to share what I plan to say in answer to two questions posed. The highlight of this afternoon will be that our World Pulse sister Robina will be with us virtually, a gift made possible because of the power of the connections we have now, thanks to World Pulse.

Question 1:

How can the lessons learned from your advocacy since the 1960s be applied to the current struggles faced by Afghan women, and what progress do you hope to see in the years ahead?

This is what I plan to say this afternoon:

I started counting when we reached a half a century of broken promises. We have realized that true freedom for women in an egalitarian global society involves the dissolution of patriarchy, and at this time in the history of the world, the glaring control through male dominance in all of its forms and the extreme control and punishment of women remain in place. The current treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan is being held up as an example and a warning, just as women in Iran being held in prison, women and girls still being beaten and raped everywhere, a world economy that enforces free labour of women and all of these brutal wars are meant to maintain status quo. 

The International Declaration of Human Rights was written and signed the year before I was born. Hansa Mehta of India ensured that the wording was changed in at least one Charter from rights for men to human rights for all people. Despite this much of the declaration still refers through the Declaration as rights for men.

The lessons that I have learned have shown me how deeply the intention to control us as women, and how varied and violent the methods. 

For this and for many reasons I'm grateful to be invited to speak with you today as we celebrate International Women's Day together in 2024. 

What is critical is that we find and continue to build ways to stay in touch and to be working together. Everything that needs to change needs to stay on the table, continue to be exposed for what it is: the oppression of, the control of, the silencing of women. 

We have learned how deeply those in power want to and intend to maintain this current system, based on a money system that has trillionaires, and people with no means to survive, a system built largely still on the free labour of women, with systems in place that continue to teach boys that they have a right to control women through violence, and reward them if they do.

We learned in the 1970’s that the way to undo this control of women and girls was through our communication with each other, our stories, so that we would understand what needed to change. 

I learned the value of holding circles for women and girls to speak freely and heal.

We opened small women centres where we gathered to document all of the forms of violence against women and girls, all of the silencing, the ridiculing and made plans for what we were going to do about it. The women's movement from that time was built by taking the time to sit in these circles with each other and hear each other stories, hear each others’ ideas of what we believe in our hearts is possible and to heal each others pain. 

We reached out for news and discovered that this was happening almost everywhere as if a telepathic message was been passed by women globally. We discovered that our own history of women heroes has been hidden from us, and that women leaders have been speaking out throughout time. We learned from our herstorians about societies in the past in which everyone lived in community, without violence, with respect for each other. 

We realized how much information has been intentionally hidden.

We learned that even a small group can make a difference. Even one conversation, one story posted can inspire many. I learned how important and powerful it is to reach out to others who hold the same determination for freedom and respect for women. I celebrated every woman and every girl being supported and listened to, every woman living her life knowing that she has a right to be free. 

I have learned how important it is to have each others’ back. To our Afghan sisters – we continue to speak out. We will never accept what has been done to you, what is being done to you, all of you who have been locked indoors, told what you can and cannot wear, what you can and cannot do, kept from going to school, kept from meeting with each other. We will never stop fighting for your freedom.

Question 2: 

Could you provide insights into your experiences working against violence towards women since the 1960s, and how these experiences shape your ongoing advocacy work?

I'm still in touch with many of the women that I have been working with since those early times. Some of us are still here. Many of us are not, and those of us who are consider it essential that the changes that we've been working for not be lost, that the history of all of the ways we are suppressed be known and that the story of women, of our lives, our abilities, our accomplishments, the places and ways in which we have been respected be known.

I have learned a lot of lessons along the way. I have learned that patriarchy is enforced intentionally to hold a current system in place, a system that demands free labour from women in a money system. The accomplishments of women are intentionally hidden to maintain the myth that men have a right to be in control. Generations of boys are still being taught that they have the right and duty to control women. Women researchers have dedicated their lives to documenting times of places globally back to 10,000 BC and still today, especially in indigenous communities in which women have been and are respected leaders. I've learned the importance of finding ways to raise the voices of women and of continuing to speak about the work we're doing and of all of the ways in which women and girls are still being silenced, controlled, brutalized, murdered. I've learned how important it is that we continue to listen to women, keep known that this current system is not the only way, and that it has not always been this way.

I've learned how important it is for us to share our stories, to plan our path forward, documenting all of the changes needed, healing through the help we offer each other, celebrating every new connection, every bit of good news, while documenting and planning for the work still needing to be done.

In a strange way knowing how long patriarchy has been in place has helped me strengthen my own determination that this is what we're here to do, to create a global community with no violence at all. I've been called utopian for changes I believe not only possible but essential. I've been called “too women-centred”. I've been called too radical. As long as women and girls are subjugated through all of these forms of violence, this work to see women free will remain my life work. This is what I have known and lived through this last half century. This is why we must continue to undo both the imprisonment and forced exodus of women from your homeland, Afghanistan.

Ten years ago I learned how to use a computer and searched for World Pulse having been given early magazines for my birthday by a friend who said she knew this would interest me. I was astounded to realize that we are able to be connected with each other globally and that we have this online network connecting so many of us, determined to end violence against women and girls and to create a world of peace in which everyone is respected and no one lives in poverty, a world with no war. I celebrate all of the women’s centres everywhere and all of the work being done. I celebrate all of the organizations that include so many people who want peace, an end to violence against women, an end to all of the violence in all of its forms. This is what shapes my work now, gratitude that now we are able to be working so closely with each other globally. All of the ways we are interconnecting, all of the zooms we can join, all of the messages we send each other, all of the alliances we form, may this uplift us as we once again celebrate International Women’s Day together.