Ensuring Women's Rights

International Women's Day was celebrated in the country on Friday (8th March) aiming to promote and ensure the rights of women. This year the theme of the day in Bangladesh is "Women's right to information, commitment to build up a digital Bangladesh." President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia issued separate messages on the occasion. The President said that women alongside men have made important contributions to all sectors of development since ancient times. In this age of globalization it is impossible to face the challenges of the 21st century excluding women. The Prime Mister said that women should be conscious about realising their rights through being totally informed , whence they would be able to ensure their participation in the mainstream of development .The Leader of the Opposition said that women's participation in all aspects of the state and the society should be ensured to build up a happy, rich and self-reliant Bangladesh. Several organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day. Movements for gender empowerment started form the previous centuries. In 1857 thousands of women in New York took to the streets to protest against inequitable wages, working hours and sexual harassment at the workplace. In 1908, a large number of women assembled in New York to realise their rights to suffrage. In 1910, 100 women representing 17 countries decided to initiate an International Women's Day (IWD) at an International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen, Denmark and the first IWD was held in 1911in Germany, Austria and Denmark. The United Nations for the first time formally proclaimed International Women's Year on March 8, 1975. Since that day IWFD has emerged as the most important day for women's empowerment across the world. We look forward to the end of violence against women and giving all citizen's rights to women and educating women at the same level as men so that they can achieve a digital Bangladesh side by side with the menfolk.