8 March: women’s rights, a daily battle

Like every year, 8 March marks International Women’s Rights Day. A date that France has symbolically chosen for the ceremony to seal the Constitution, which has just enshrined the right to abortion – a world first! This right, which protects women’s health and freedom, is a universal feminist battle that is never won: it is being rolled back in several countries, such as the United States and Poland, and is still banned in around twenty countries around the world. On this 8 March, we are also thinking of the women of Iran and Afghanistan who, as in other religious dictatorships, are violently relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Where war has taken hold, as in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere, women are often the victims of sexual violence, a terrible weapon of war… The fight for women’s rights still has a long way to go.

Find all the archives of our weekly editorials here!