Women around the world are expected to gather on Saturday to call for “parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society.” The website for the Women’s March on Washington shows more than 600 “sister marches” planned across six continents, with more than 1.3 million people registered to attend.
The marches are timed for the day after Donald Trump is sworn in as president, and the turnout for the march in Washington may well exceed the crowds for the inauguration. The organizers of the march say its purpose is to “send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights.”
The mission reads, in part:
The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us — immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault — and our communities are hurting and scared.
But the focus of the march goes beyond the U.S. election, calling for equal rights for women.
We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.
After some early controversy, the organizers have emphasized that the march is for women of all races, religions, sexual orientations and income levels. The list of principles includes reproductive rights, workers rights, civil rights, immigrant rights and disability rights.
The GroundTruth Project will be covering several of the marches around the world, as well as the march in Washington. Since GroundTruth launched as an idea in 2012, social justice issues and human rights, specifically women’s rights, have been at the core of the journalism of The GroundTruth Project. Here’s a sampling of stories:
From our special report “Laws of Men”
- In Saudi Arabia, women are still assigned male ‘guardians’
- Secret abortions kill thousands of Nigerian women each year (VIDEO)
- Kurdish teenager’s ‘honor killing’ fades to memory as Iraq violence swells
- Despite first conviction, female genital mutilation remains common in Egypt
From our special report “The Other”
- Four women who fled Syria
- In Greece, migrant women push for acceptance
- Here are 6 women trying — against all odds — to build a future for Gaza
- What’s It Like to Be a Female Journalist in the Middle East
From our “Women in Tech” reporting project
