As we come marching, marching, in the beauty of, the day.
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray.
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing, Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses.
As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler that toil where one reposes.
But a sharing of life's glories, Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses.

Hillary Clinton states very nicely, “There cannot be true democracy unless women’s voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives. There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country.” She adds, “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.”

In 18th century, when women were brought to industrial companies in America and Europe, they suffered seriously from laboring long hours in return for low income. In other words, their employers exploited them to such an extent that they felt compelled to raise their voice against their injustice. Their protest was the first spark which bore fruit in 19th century.

On March 8, 1857, garment workers in New York City marched and picketed, demanding improved working conditions, a ten hour day, and equal rights for women. Their ranks were broken up by the police. Fifty-one years later, March 8, 1908, their sisters in the needle trades in New York marched again, honoring the 1857 march, demanding the vote, and an end to sweatshops and child labor.

On February 28, 1909, the first National Woman’s Day was observed in the US. The US Socialist Party designated this in honor of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York.

In 1910, the Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, to honor the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

In 1911, as a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time, in 19th March, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one culture or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many societies. Moreover, women suffer many challenges such as gender bias, violence, sexual harassment, and etc. all around the world.

At their most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these patriarchal beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for everyone in society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

Ill-fatedly, women suffer from social and domestic violence in our society to a large extent. They fall victim to men’s cruelties in one way or another. For instance, in the current solar year, Afghan women underwent highly tragic incident. They were flogged and stoned in desert court, stabbed and shot to death, killed by axe, raped and a woman’s nose and lips were lopped off.

In addition, numerous Afghan women committed to working for peace and development have been murdered, including four policewomen, a local government worker and a pregnant school teacher.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) announced on November 25th, which was the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, that a 25 percent jump in reported cases of human rights violations against women in Afghanistan in 2013. The AIHRC released a report on the same day, which stated that 4, 154 cases of human rights violations had been filed by Afghan women in only six months of the current solar year. The AIHRC added that violations against women can include psychological, physical, sexual, economic and verbal mistreatment.

I would like to conclude my article with Nelson Mandela’s statement as he says, “As long as we take the view that these are problems for women alone to solve, we cannot expect to reverse the high incidence of rape and child abuse. Domestic violence will not be eradicated. We will not defeat this scourge that affects each and every one of us, until we succeed in mobilizing the whole of our society to fight it.” He adds, “For every woman and girl violently attacked, we reduce our humanity. For every woman forced into unprotected sex because men demand this, we destroy dignity and pride. Every woman who has to sell her life for sex we condemn to a lifetime in prison. For every moment we remain silent, we conspire against our women. For every woman infected by HIV, we destroy a generation.”