International Women's Day: From Clara Zetkin to now

Today is 8 March, International Women's Day. This day has been commemorated from 1975 at the behest of the United Nations. And it has a history, a history that tells a tale and speaks of beginnings. Actually it has been over a century, 112 years to be precise, that 8 March has been observed as a special day for women all over the world.

At a conference of working socialist women held in Stuttgart in 1907, a progressive German socialist women's front was formed with the astute socialist leader Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) as its international secretary. In 1910, the second International Conference of Working Women was held in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. It was during that conference that 8 March was declared as International Women's Day. There is a history behind this.

On 8 March 1908 working women in New York, USA, launched a movement demanding an 8 hour working day and equal wages. Several women were killed in this turbulent movement. And down till this day 8 March is observed worldwide in memory of the contribution of those working women towards establishing women's rights.

The former socialist countries declared 8 March to be an official holiday. In 1984 the United Nations recognised 8 March and since then Bangladesh too has been officially observing 8 March as Women's Day. The UN Commission on the Status of Women holds its international conference on 8 March. During the women's uprising in the past, women of England, Germany, America and Europe perceived the importance of national and international unified movements and accordingly created various forums. These organisations were based on the multifarious problems faced by women of all classes and professions.

On 8 March 1997, prime minister Sheikh Hasina declared the National Women's Development Policy. The National Women's Development Council monitors the implementation of women's rights. A national plan has been drawn up for women's empowerment. But many clauses remain in those laws that are a violation of human dignity. No initiatives to amend these anomalies are being carried out.

The law has an important role in contributing positively to upholding women's rights. Laws must always be updated. Some radical steps were taken in the Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women (1995), in CEDAW and also in several Muslim countries including Tunisia, to ensure women's rights. In backdrop of such actions, it has become imperative to ensure women's rights in Bangladesh's laws. However, the existing laws are rife with discrimination and deprivation in the context of women's rights.

From the early stages of women's uprising, it is evident that it was the quest for social, family, legal and political rights in the interests of women, that initiated the women's movement. It was a quest to be recognised as a full-fledged citizen and a human being. Later many women welfare organisations were formed, demanding equal rights at work, rights concerning motherhood, marriage and divorce and so on.

Towards the end of the nineteen century, signs of the First World War (1914-18) began to appear all over Europe. Under the tremendous pressure of the imperialist war, women's family, social and economic lives were pitched into acute danger. Poet Rabindranath commented on that predicament of women: "It is not just that their veils were dropped from their faces. The veils in their minds, that that hidden most of the world from them, fell away too. The society into which they were born was now becoming clear to them. They no longer would play with the dolls created by blind conventions. Their natural intellect would no longer be used just within their homes, but would now extend to the well-being of all." (Kalantar: Nari)

From the very outset of the women's movement there was been important deliberations on the complexities of women's economic, social and political problems. There are many issues connected to women's emancipation -- women's dignity, that is, their place in society and in the family, childcare, protection from all sorts of abuse, torture and discrimination, changes in the existing social order -- and how to go ahead in addressing these issues.

Women's emancipation is a class-related issue. The source of women's exploitation lies in the social structure and this must be abolished in order to achieve a sustainable solution. And therein lies the link between the women's movement and the class struggle. The question of women's emancipation is a social issue, no doubt. No matter at what level of society a women is in, she faces all sorts of problem which do not affect men at the least. Unless the matter of addressing women's needs and problems is included in the socioeconomic and political mainstream, there will simply be one-sided male-centric development and growth. Women will be victims of repression and discrimination. That does not mean that men are responsible for these problems of women. It is the state's social, economic and political framework that is the basic cause of all of women's discrimination and exploitation.

Then there is a branch of the women's movement that maintains that the dominance of men in society is the cause of all of women's problems. They reject the link between women's movement and the class struggle, saying that it is not the capitalist society and economy that needs to be changed. If the male-dominated social order can be changed and if men's mindset can be changed, and if women are given equal rights in all spheres of life, then women will be free of repression, exploitation and deprivation.

These two trends in the women's movement take up all sorts of programmes and there are differences in their initiatives. The women make their demands on the basis of whichever background they come from, the experiences they have lived through. So some seem accurate and some do not, depending on the context.

Poet Sufia Kamal (1911-1999) visited the Soviet Union on an invitation to join the 8 March 1967 International Women's Day there. She returned and write about here experience in the book 'Sovieter Dinguli' (Soviet Days), published in 1968.

It was the journalists who first took up a movement against fatwa in the nineties. The fatwa-wala, in their vested interests, brought torment and torture to the lives of Nurjahan of Chhatakchhara in Maulvibazar, Nurjahan of Sripur in Faridpur, the elderly couple Yasin and Shukkurjan in Tarash of Sirajganj, Khalid and Mariam of Kumarkhali, Swapnahar of Brahmanbaria, Safura Bibi of Naogaon, a housewife in Cox's Bazar, Hasna Khatun in Sakhipur and hundreds of other women. It was the journalists of the district towns that first exposed them.

They risked their lives to report on these nefarious activities. Women rights, human rights and NGO activists stood up against these fatwa, following these news reports. I visited remote areas of the country wherever I heard of women being victims of fatwa and the journalists there extended all-out cooperation. After our women's movement meetings, actions and support, when we returned to the capital city, it was those journalists to remained there to help these families ostracised by fatwa.

When I edited a book 'Fatwa 1990-1995' (published by Gonoshahajya Sangstha), I learnt so much more from all those experiences over these five years. I will never forget the courageous contributions of the journalists. I salute them. The verdicts were won through their efforts and they will take this to the villages. I believe their staunch stance will bring ensure the enactment and implementation of the required laws.

With the participation of men and women internationally in commemorating 8 March 2022, the movement for equal rights will advance.

* Maleka Begum is involvement in the women's movement and chairperson of the department of sociology and gender studies, Central Women's University