Colombians came together across the country Thursday to celebrate International Women’s Day, culminating with a concert featuring hip hop fusion band ChocQuibTown in Bogota.
In a country where women continue to face severe discrimination, nationwide marches demanding gender equality took place alongside promotional events in restaurants and bars, and a series of cultural events in the capital.
In Medellin, women and men from organizations across the city demanded an end to gender-based violence and discrimination, and made a specific plea that a dedicated women’s clinic be opened.
“Take your rosaries out of our ovaries,” and “Not the state’s, not the church’s, not the husband’s, my body is mine, and I decide,” were some of the refrains chanted by hundreds of protesters in a celebratory mood, dancing and banging drums down the city’s major streets.
In Bogota, Grammy winners ChocQuibTown performed a free concert alongside Toto La Momposina, Pastora Cabezas and Colombia Negra in Plaza de Bolivar. Clara Elena Cardona, a lawyer with Bogota-based women’s organization Casa de la Mujer, told Colombia Reports, “Today is a day for profound political analysis regarding women — it is not the day of the woman, it is the day of women’s human rights. We must not just give a flower or a gift this one day and then spend the other 364 living in conditions of violence and vulnerability and oppression.”
Massive transformation was still required, said Cardona. “There is a huge lack of social and political awareness about what women’s rights means. We have the right to live without being hit, without being killed, without young girls having to work in prostitution. And how can we talk about democracy when we don’t take into account the opinions of more than half the population who are women?”
In a country where 99% of abortions last year were illegal, a 2010 study found a woman was killed by her partner on average every four days and women work ten hours a week more than men but receive 20% less pay, President Juan Manuel Santos pledged earlier this week to advance women’s rights. He signed an agreement with the country’s 32 governors requiring departments to mount publicity campaigns and internal training to fight entrenched violence and discrimination.
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All photos by Christan Leonard