March the 8th is a day like no other throughout the calendar. It does not only reflect the consciousness that Men acquired about having a world whose emblem is gender equality, but it also demonstrates how women could lead revolutions against tyranny, injustice, and inequity. The cornerstones of the Soviet Union - women workers - mobilised all that they could in 1917, saying no to war and to the Tsar. On that particular day, women showed the power they harnessed and stood with their nation’s interest.
German-Polish Rosa Luxemburg was a pivotal figure in women’s fight against discrimination. She was to stand alone in early twentieth-century Germany, fronting a society that was dominated by nationalists. Rosa cared for a world governed by equality and fairness among genders, races, and nationalities. Hence, she considered her life a low currency to give for the process of liberating folk.
Likewise, Emma Goldman was a star that shone in the sky of the American hope for liberty. Propelled by the execution of the labour activists who were falsely accused of Chicago’s Haymarket Square destruction, Emma was determined to dedicate her life to espousing the rights of the most vulnerable. She tried to thwart the United States’ intervention in fuelling the flames of World War I. In the end, Emma Goldman paid her life in exile as a price for the people’s liberty.
Ana Pauker was no different from the previous women activists. She was to write history, being the first woman Foreign Minister in the world, as one of the Romanian Communist Party’s leaders. The Romanian activist played a paramount role in ending one of the most dangerous ideologies that ever existed: fascism.
Indeed, women spared no effort in defending human rights in the modern era. Such were women like Angela Davis, Michele Barret, and Raya Dunayevska, to name but a few. Tellingly, March the 8th is not only an important day for women but for all humanity, recognising the tremendous unceasing endeavours of women in their way to liberate and speak for the most vulnerable. To summarise all the troubles women went through, we may recite old Arab Poetess Al-Khanssa’s following verses:
Women say thou art yet to be old, yet thy hair is grey;
merely the least of what I underwent, colour one’s hair in grey.