Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso Minister of Women, National Solidarity and Family Laure Zongo-Hien, has called on authorities to strengthen efforts for fighting social exclusion of women in the West African country.
Zongo-Hien said: “we urge traditional and religious authorities to use their prerogatives to ensure respect for human dignity through strong and consistent measures to combat social exclusion of women”.
She made the remarks in a release issued in Ouagadougou on Tuesday ahead of the International Women’s Day on March 8.
According to official figures, women account for over 52 per cent of the whole population in Burkina Faso.
Among them, 926 socially excluded women were registered in 13 reception and solidarity centres up to Dec. 17, 2016, but only 61 of them have returned to their families.
The minister urged a joint fight against the phenomenon (of social exclusion of women) in face of the “flagrant violation” of the most fundamental human rights of women.
“I call upon you to prioritise and strengthen networking so as to ensure a more efficient coordination of your actions, to exchange best practices and to make sure that policies for promoting women’s rights are well implemented,” she said.
The West African country will celebrate the International Women’s Day on Wednesday under the theme of “Moral value of the human person: community responsibility in the fight against social exclusion of women.”
NAN reports that originally called day, is celebrated on March 8 every year in different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women for their economic, political and social achievements.
An effective Women’s Day was the 1975 Icelandic women’s strike which paved the way for the first female president in the world, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
In some regions, the day lost its political flavour and became simply an occasion for people to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
In other regions however, the political and human rights theme designated by the UN runs strong political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.
Some people celebrate the day by wearing purple ribbons.
The earliest celebration was held as a Socialist political event in 1909 in New York City. Declared a national holiday in the Soviet Union in 1917, it spread to other nearby countries. It is now celebrated in many Eastern countries.
The earliest Women’s Day observance was held on Feb. 28, 1909, in New York.
It was organised by the Socialist Party of America in remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies Garment Worker’s Union.
