Women's Day rallies highlight inequality amid pandemic

Ukraine: 'The pandemic has a woman's face'

Ukraine's capital Kyiv was rocked by protests as thousands of women marched to highlight domestic violence. With banners saying "the pandemic has a woman's face," protesters aimed to draw attention to how women suffered during the COVID crisis. Cases of domestic violence have risen worldwide during the coronavirus pandemic, as isolation and confinement prompted sexual and gender-based violence.

Women's Day rallies highlight inequality amid pandemic

Philippines: Down with Duterte

Hundreds of women rallied in the capital Manila protesting President Rodrigo Duterte for alleged abuses against women. The president has angered women's rights groups since he took office in 2016 as he has repeatedly made jokes about rape. Protesters smashed an effigy of Duterte with sledgehammers.

Women's Day rallies highlight inequality amid pandemic

Turkey: Calling for an end to femicide

Rallies took to the streets in Istanbul to protest violence against women. A day before the protests, Turkish authorities announced the arrest of a man who appeared to beat his wife on the streets in a widely circulated video on social media. Turkey has one of the highest femicide rates in the world. Last year, at least 300 women were murdered, according to a rights group.

Women's Day rallies highlight inequality amid pandemic

Pakistan: Defying Islamism

Pakistani women rallied around the country's major cities in defiance of Islamist hardliners, who had attacked the march with stones last year. Dancing, chanting and marching, protesters demanded reform in the healthcare system, highlighting how the pandemic struck women the most. Women around the world suffered to access reproductive and sexual healthcare during the coronavirus crisis.

Women's Day rallies highlight inequality amid pandemic

Mexico: Remembering victims

Women placed flowers and wrote the names of victims of violence on a fence set at the presidential palace in Mexico City. In the last five years, femicide rates rose to almost 130% in Mexico.

Author: Farah Bahgat