Women’s Day rallies seek equality, focus on Iran, Afghanistan

MANILA/MADRID: Rallies marking International Women’s Day took place around the world on Wednesday after a year in which girls in Afghanistan were banned from education, mass women’s rights protests erupted in Iran and a landmark US abortion ruling was overturned.

Demonstrations were held in Paris, Berlin, Beirut, Jakarta, Singapore and elsewhere. Rallies were planned in other cities.

In Manila, activists calling for equal rights and better wages scuffled with police blocking their protest.

“Girls just want to have fun...damental rights,” read one poster.

In Melbourne, demonstrators demanded equal pay and better safety for women. “Safe, respected, equal,” said one banner at the march. An Iranian contingent was also present.

Protests included calls for solidarity with women in Iran and Afghanistan where their freedoms have faced especially hard blows in the past year.

“Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women’s rights, and it has been distressing to witness their methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere,” Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement marking the day.

The death in September of 23-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police in Tehran unleashed the biggest anti-government protests in Iran in years.

In recent days, Iran’s clerical rulers have faced renewed pressure as public anger was compounded by a wave of poisoning attacks affecting schoolgirls in dozens of schools.

Abortion and reproductive rights were on the agenda for international rallies on Wednesday, nine months after the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v.