Today is March 8th, a day dedicated to women. It is also a day marking their struggle for equality. While they continue to fight for their rights, as they will show today through several activities across the world, women will receive gifts as a gesture of gratitude for what they do in the community or for their families. The tradition of giving flowers on this day is a symbol of love, respect, and support for these women.
Today, all attention is focused on the fairer sex. That is also the case in North Mitrovica.
Flower shops are packed with customers, and the streets are painted in bright colors with roses, orchids, carnations and even potted plants.
Street vendors came from various regions, offering a wide selection, and customers spare no expense – from the youngest generations to the elderly.
Unlike previous years, due to the lack of dinars in circulation, vendors complained about significantly lower turnover compared to previous years.
In Gračanica, the „Rose of Triumph 2024“ will be awarded tomorrow, for the most successful woman in this municipality from various professions.
Flowers versus the fight for rights
However, apart from flowers and recognition, organizations and individuals today also highlight women’s position in society, the level of (in)equality compared to the male gender and all the shortcomings when it comes to women’s rights.
At the beginning of this week, KoSSev also organized a round table on the topic „Women, editors and directors in the media“, which gathered, in addition to representatives of the media, representatives of civil society, volunteer associations, policewomen…
They pointed out that, despite the number of women in these positions, they are far less privileged than men and are often exposed to criticism. At the same time, women are expected to be devoted to their families; to be great mothers, wives, sisters, or daughters. Such circumstances and expectations still exist amid the increase in femicide and domestic violence.
Accordingly, new statistics from the Kosovo Police on the number of cases of domestic violence show that in less than two years, 78 such cases were reported in northern municipalities, and in 99% of cases the victims were women.
There is only one safe house in the north, in the Municipality of Zubin Potok. As announced yesterday by the Minister of Local Self-Government Administration, Elbert Krasnići, part of the land near the Vojni Remont site in North Mitrovica will be earmarked for another safe house.
Such a situation when it comes to domestic violence is not recorded only in the north. At least three similar cases are recorded daily in other municipalities in Kosovo. In the last 24 hours alone, the police recorded six such cases throughout Kosovo.
The Kosovo public was particularly disturbed by a case from November last year, when thirty-year-old Liridona Ademaj-Murseli, a mother of two, was killed in Pristina. Her husband is the main suspect in her murder.
Protests were held against domestic violence, and the traditional March 8 march „We are marching, not celebrating“ was held in Pristina today at noon, where women called for equality and justice again this year.
A march will also take place in Belgrade at 18:00 p.m. on Slavija Square, organized by the informal network of feminist and women’s groups and independent activists – „Always on the Front Line“.
„We, the women of Serbia, faced with a serious crisis in our country, in which the institutions are trapped, and the government produces violence every day, on March 8 we resolutely stand together and defend our rights, continue the fight for full equality and occupy the front line in the conquest of freedom,“ the activists stated in the announcement.
Since the beginning of 2024, three women were killed by their romantic partners in Serbia, while 28 women were killed last year, according to the statistics of the Femplatz Association from Serbia.
At the same time, a special screening of films by Palestinian artists „This country, my sister, is a woman“ on the occasion of International Women’s Day will be held from 7 pm in the cinema of the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade. As reported by Danas, the collected donations will be given to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Political representatives – both in the Kosovo and Serbian systems – from both central and local institutions have been congratulating International Women’s Day since this morning.
115 years of March 8
March 8 is celebrated as a reminder of 1857 and the strike in New York during which women textile factory workers demanded better working conditions, but also of the strike that followed on the same day, in the same place, only 51 years later.
The female workers were first locked in the factory, from which they were unable to get out, and then a fire broke out in which 129 women perished. In memory of this event, a year later, March 8, International Women’s Day, was celebrated for the first time in this city.
This event was also an incentive for all women around the world to demand better working conditions and equality with men.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
