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Today is International Women’s Day, and it is my sincere wish that the world recognize the important of women and learn to respect women. Over the years, women have been becoming stronger and more outspoken to demand equal rights. In the United States, women’s rights movements have been in place since 1848 (see here for timeline). Today, women are generally considered equals to males, but there is still work to be done. Hillary Clinton summed it up best in a report released to the Associated Press, “Today, women and girls have a much greater chance to live healthy and secure lives, and their fundamental human rights are now protected by law in many countries throughout the world. Women and girls have access to educational and work opportunities that were previously unimaginable.” Still she reminds us that achieving equality for women worldwide is “the great unfinished business of the 21st century.”
India is one such country where work remains with regards to women’s rights. India needs to ingrain greater respect for women in all aspects of society, needs to create better equal opportunities for women, and needs to change the mindset many still have of women being inferior to males. Over the past couple years, in light of the Delhi rape case, more and more women are speaking out. Moreover, with the recent release of the Nirbhaya documentary, women’s rights issues have become a central topic of debate. Only a couple days ago, there was a heated debate in the Rajya Sabha, after Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a statement that a restraining order had been obtained against the screening of “India’s Daughter,” a documentary by BBC that is based on the 2012 Delhi gang-rape (see here). Listen below as he speaks and many female members of parliament also speak out.
