Each year there are thousands of events to celebrate International Women’s Day.
However, I don’t personally see it as a day of celebration. Rather, it’s a day to spend the time to stop and take off our rose coloured glasses and see what we don’t want to see the other 364 days of the year. Reality.
Reality of what is really happening outside of our comfortable lives, outside of our coffee catch ups and champagne drinking networking events.
It’s a day, just one day, where we should appreciate how good we have it. The fact you’re reading this article means you have your eyesight and you can afford the internet, an iPhone or a computer. In fact, it means you have the freedom to read what you choose — and the freedom to even comment on it if you choose — not to forget the basic necessity of electricity.
IWD is a day to take a step back and accept that our society is NOT getting any better and in fact it’s getting worse.
That globally we are surrounded by women who don’t have the right to live let alone the right to chose her outfit for the day.
So instead of pretending all is okay on International Women’s Day or pass off these realities as something that one day ‘will get better’ and start seeing things the way they really are.
Appreciate what you have, where you live and the opportunities you have in front of you.
Then look outside your comfort zone into the rest of the world. Have an international look at the lives of women in another, less fortunate country. The life of a woman who can’t speak, is not allowed to study and isn’t concerned about equal pay but rather where she will find clean water without being raped.
This is what International Women’s Day is about.
