We, women of the world, are turning our grief into strength.
We, women of all peoples, ages, classes and sexualities, are resisting the
growing criminalisation against us, our protests and our proposals. The streets
and public spaces are ours! We are organised in our social movements, despite
the pressure we face to remain within the domestic space; we persist in our
fight for progressive laws that strengthen our formal rights, despite the
repression and violence we face from governments and religious institutions. We
are all women in resistance celebrating the progress we have achieved! We are
all Filipina women celebrating the passage of the Reproductive Health Law!
We are saying “Enough” to the violence against us. Again and again, we are
taking the lead and taking to the streets in the fight against all forms of
violence and the normalisation of this violence within our societies. We are
denouncing violence as structural; as a tool of control of our lives, bodies
and sexualities within the capitalist, neo-colonialist, patriarchal system. We
are all Indian and Bangladeshi women fighting against rape, sexual violence and
the impunity face by its perpetrators! We are all Mayan women breaking the
silence in the courts in our demand for justice! We are all Mozambican women in
the successful struggle to pass the domestic violence law!
We, indigenous women, are fighting back. We are mobilising massively at the
local and international levels. We are demanding that our governments respect
our rights and those of our peoples and territories, and we are creatively
using the tools of struggle available to us. We are all B’laan Filipina women
and Mayan, Xinca and
mestiza Guatemalan women protecting our territories – our land and our bodies – from mining
and hydroelectric industries! We are all Idle No More protesters and
Canadian First Nation women challenging the longstanding discrimination and
injustices faced by indigenous peoples!
We, young women and girls, are resisting the patriarchal back lash against
us: within our families – where the notion of what is “proper” and “correct” is
used to justify the restriction of our movements –, and within society as whole
– where our access to education or reproductive health services or public
health services of quality is limited or denied… We continue to defy these
restrictions, as we organise ourselves, debate, mobilise, strengthen our
struggles and give vibrancy to our resistances. We are all Pakistani girls
attending school despite the physical threats against us! We are all Chilean
women students shouting “no” to our privatised education system and demanding
free, quality education!
We, feminists, are still struggling for autonomy over our bodies, sexuality
and fertility. We are demanding the legalisation of abortion in those countries
where we are considered criminals for exercising our right not to be mothers.
We are resisting the attempts to roll-back the abortion and reproductive rights
we have achieved through our struggles over the last decades. We are all women
of Turkey, in our thousands, standing up to governmental accusations that we
are assassins! We are all young European women fighting the backlash on
abortion rights across the continent! We are all Uruguayan women commemorating
the legalisation of abortion in our country, while at the same time remaining
alert to the potential restrictions on, and control of women choosing to
exercise this right.
We, activists in our trade unions and political parties, are defying the continued
sexism and misogyny manifested by our own brothers in the struggle as we
continue to keep up the pressure for the inclusion of our grassroots,
anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist feminism in debates, declarations and
struggles. We continue to strengthen ourselves collectively, our alliances and our
feminist demands. We are all women present in the convergence spaces of social
movements – for example, at the Firenzi 10+10, Italy – affirming our feminist
analysis and demands!
We, all women, are becoming more and more rebellious in the face of the
conservative, fundamentalist offensive and the militarisation of our
communities. We are all Malian women and young women defying the Islamist
oppression by riding our motorbikes, leaving our houses to continue our daily
lives in public spaces, and struggling against rape, sexual violence and the
impunity of aggressors! We are all European women defying our governments in
the fight against austerity measures! We are all Egyptian women defying the
serious threats of sexual violence we face by returning again and again to
protest in Tahrir Square! We are all Tunisian women struggling for the demands
of the revolution – work, freedom, dignity and citizenship –, and against the
attempts to impose discrimination mechanisms against women from early childhood
onwards (single sex kindergartens, the use of veils in nursery schools, and the
promotion of early marriage)!
We, women of the World March of Women, are marching on this 8th March 2013, as we did in our thousands during the 24 Hours of Feminist
Action around the World on the 10th December
2012. In a wave of action across the continents, we are turning our grief into
strength!
Around the World, 8th March 2013