Women’s Day shines harsh light on ‘femicide’

International Women’s Day marked its 100th year yesterday with protests against “femicide” in its various forms around the world – from honour killings in Turkey to wanton violence in Guatemala to the deadly crushing of a women’s rally in Ivory Coast.

In Turkey, thousands of women marched to denounce honour crimes despite a 2005 law that carries jail terms of up to life imprisonment.

“Don’t Turn Our Wedding Dresses into Shrouds,” they chanted.

A woman deemed to have brought shame on her family perhaps because she was raped or eloped with a boyfriend to avoid an arranged marriage can be the victim of an honour killing by a male family member.

Hundreds of women demonstrated in Ivory Coast meanwhile to condemn the killing of seven women at a rally last week demanding that strongman Laurent Gbagbo quit the presidency after losing elections.

Mostly dressed in white and wearing red headbands, they marched to “pay homage to the women killed,” an organiser said. “We are not going to stop demonstrating until Laurent Gbagbo leaves.”

In Guatemala, where a culture of impunity saw nearly 700 women killed in 2010 alone, the head of a commission on “femicide” called for a specific statute on femicide.

Palestinian women took to the streets of Gaza to call for an end to the Israeli occupation.

In the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, dozens of women blocked a major road for half an hour to protest Israeli roadblocks.

“Part of the women’s rights issue is the harm caused by the Israeli occupation,” said activist Fadwa Khader. “Can you imagine women being woken up and kicked out of their homes in the early morning so their homes can be demolished to make way for settlements?” she asked.

“We are talking about human rights and women’s rights,” she said.

A Moroccan human rights group called for the kingdom to inscribe gender equality in the Constitution. A leading rights activist in Morocco, where laws protecting girls from forced marriages are poorly enforced, blamed entrenched mindsets.

The minimum age of marriage for women was raised to 18 from 15 in 2004 unless a judge grants special permission. Still, about 42,000 requests to marry minors were made in 2009, mostly in rural areas.

Cambodian women were unable to mark the day publicly, as authorities banned a rally amid growing concern about a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.