In South Africa, we celebrate Women’s Day on August 9, 2017, in order to pay tribute to the challenges and hardships they faced in standing up to the apartheid regime and commemorate their successes and accomplishments made, not only here in South Africa – but around the world.
Sadly, despite their many accomplishments – challenges such as sexual assault, violence, unemployment and poverty are still all too commonplace for the South African woman even though great progress has been made to overcome these concerns.
In other parts of Africa people spend more than 40 billion hours carrying water, most of them happen to be girls and women – time which they could have rather spent on educating themselves.
At Islamic Relief an Indian grandmother was asked why she was so happy that a tap was installed in her house, “I spent half my life fetching water, she told him. “Now my granddaughters do not have to do the same.”
Allah says in the Quran, “People, we have created you all male and female and have made you nations and tribes so that you would recognize each other. The most honorable among you in the sight of God is the most pious of you. God is All-knowing and All-aware”.
We celebrate Women’s Day at Islamic Relief because by giving them one day in the year we are able to educate men about the challenges and struggles women face. It is a lesson to men to appreciate women, respect and applaud them for the contribution they have made to society.
To that end, we are highlighting the hard working women in our organization by letting them take the stage and voicing their opinions on being a woman in South Africa.
To read about their experiences – follow the link to check out our Instagram page.