Womens Global Strike 2022 International Women’s Day 2022

The WSCF joins the Women's Global Strike in the International Women’s Day. This year's theme focuses on working women all around the world acknowledging that if women stop, the world stops.

We give thanks and celebrate women´s life, contributions and struggles for their rights. At the same time we recognize that the dominant patriarchal culture still does not allow men, women and all creation to coexist in just and equitable relationships.

As long as there are women who suffer lack of access and opportunities, violence, discrimination, rape, death; the path together with them continues to listen, to learn, to repentance, to ask for forgiveness, to accompany, to empower, to denounce, to transform, to vindicate, to dignify.

May God allow us to celebrate the good things but never be indifferent to what needs to be changed to achieve women fullness of life throughout the world.


REFLECTIONS

Pavlina ManavskaGrowing up in Macedonia celebrating women was really a big deal or let me rephrase that: celebrating women on one particular day was a big deal. On March 8th you would see flowers and booked restaurants for everyone. In the former Yugoslavia however, International Women’s Day was not only celebrated individually but at a state level. Most of the female workers would only work until lunch time or would get that day off so they could go and celebrate with the other female colleagues. If it was on a weekend, they would get Friday off and some would even book a bus tour somewhere and go for a trip. But women’s Day was also Mother’s Day and Teachers Day as there are no separate holidays. So, women “want and need more” therefore give them all and put everything in one single day. We were thought that the International Women’s Day is meant to remind us how women have fought for their rights therefore it should be a celebration. I am not sure that flowers are helping much, because this day is more of a Women’s Struggle Day. Things are changing around the world but the fight for equality is certainly not over. There shouldn’t only be one day when we respect and show appreciation – every day should be about equal opportunities, equal wages, fair treatment and working conditions with no violence. There are many activist movements in Macedonia that are organizing marches for women’s rights using their voice to go out on the streets and loudly condemn violence and abuse against women under the slogan “You are not guilty!” From 2015-2020 Kolinda Grabrat-Kitarovic, as a Croatian politician served as the first woman to be the President of Croatia. In 2019 in Berlin, International Women's Day became a public holiday where so many activities are organized in educating people and demanding life without fear, without exploitation and oppression. In 2021 Germany elected the first woman Franziska Giffey to be the governing mayor of Berlin.

The showering with flowers or chocolates seems to be a nice gesture and a kind of “compensation” for the women who continue to fight for equal rights. But our mutual goal today is to raise our voices and talk about problems that women experience in different regions, educate our younger generation and initiate conversations in order to see the change. I am very grateful and privileged to serve as a women Vice-Chair Officer in a Federation that is committed to dialogue, ecumenism, social justice, and peace for all.

Pavlina Manavska
WSCF Vice-Chairperson
Macedonia-Germany

Ebere Ubesie“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”. Gen1:27

Imagine a world where your abilities and skills are not accessed and determined by your gender #BreakTheBias

Stereotypes limits a beautiful soul, the world becomes beautiful when the bias is broken #breakthebias #genderequality

Gender doesn't limit the dynamism of brilliant minds.

Ebere Ubesie
WSCF Honorary Treasurer
Nigeria

Malena Lozada MontanariWomen's strike, why?
Because there is not a day that a woman is not murdered just for being a woman.
Women's strike, why?
Because there is still the “glass ceiling” in jobs and the differences in salary and benefits.
Women's strike, why?
Because even today our abilities are placed in question
Women's strike, why?
Because we hope for a world that is just and equal for all.

Malena Lozada Montanari
WSCF Executive Committee Member from Latin America and the Caribbean
Argentina

Hnin Wai Thi AungI would like to urge men to work with women to change a negative world for the better, rather than oppressing and discriminating against women. We talk about Gender Justice because all women worldwide don’t have the same rights as men do.

Hnin Wai Thi Aung
WSCF Executive Committee member from Asia Pacific Region
Myanmar

PRAYERS

Lord, you, being a teacher, let yourself be touched
for the teaching of the Syrophoenician woman.
You took her in when the others threw her to the wind
for being a woman, a foreigner and with a sick girl.
Lord, you did not deny the voice of her demand,
but invited her to be part of your Kingdom of grace,
well-being and salvation in the face of inclemency.

Lord, hold our breasts
to resist pain and suffering like Rizpah did;
to raise our voices in times of violence and death,
to continue being in this unfinished humanity,
so as not to let ourselves be destroyed by oblivion and indifference.

There are many stories of women without names, like the Syrophoenician;
and of women like Rispah –burning coal-
who, even today, experience exclusion and violence;
who fight to claim their rights;
Give us the ability to unlearn what denies full life
and to practice the pedagogy of love that restores and dignifies

Jackeline Castillo Jayme
SCM Peru

God of love and peace,
we raise our cry for all women:
mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, granddaughters,
thinkers, creatives, lovers, activists, educators,
women leaders, defenders, entrepeneurs, …
and especially for those who suffer violence and oppression.
May our solidarity support them
in the situations in which they find themselves today,
and may our prayer help them recover
harmony and balance in their lives.

We pray that each woman thinks and feels ownership of her body,
entitled to pleasure and choices.
Let our energies, united, reach them
to strengthen them in the difficult task of doing
that their land, their bodies and their hearts,
close their wounds and be reborn,
without limitations, without fears;
and that each of our sisters feel:
beautiful, unique and capable.

Melissa Ortega Ruiz
SCM Barranquilla, Colombia

Womens Global Strike 2022b


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