Asian Rural Women on Women's Day 2009: "Because Women Are Still Not Equal"

Rural Women March and Rally on International Women's Day!
International delegates join the Women's Caravan and Public Rally calling for Rights, Empowerment and Liberation
8 March 2008/Tamilnadu-The first ever Asian Rural Women's Conference came to a successful conclusion with bang as participants traveled in vans, buses and lorries on the Women's Caravan through the main highway to Chennai. Vibrantly decorated vehicles carried international and local delegates who chanted slogans and calls for women's rights, liberation and empowerment to curious passersby, who were given pamphlets about the issues raised at the conference. [...more]

Empowering Ourselves Against Fundamentalism!
ARWC Feature- 7 March 2008
On the second morning of the ongoing 1st Asian Rural Women's Conference at Palavoy, Arakkonam, the collective voices of the women gathered from 20 countries in Asia came out strongly against the rising fundamentalism throughout the region, and agreed that such fundamentalism was directly or indirectly engineered or encouraged by the state. [...more]

Rural Women's Voices Take Centre Stage at First Ever Asian Rural Women's Conference
Women from over 20 countries in Asia gather in Arrakonam, Tamil Nadu, India to Assert Calls for Rights, Empowerment and Liberation
6 March 2008/Palavoy, Arrokonam, India-The first ever Asian Rural Women's Conference got off to a colourful joyous start, as marchers roused residents at the local market at Arrokonam to join in, accompanied by young women drummers clad in bright blue saris. [...more]

Stories of Despair and Hope - A Focus on Dalit women
ARWC Feature - 6 March 2008
Over 750 women from 20 countries. Over 750 stories and life histories being shared. It isn't just another Women's Day ritual. It is the 1st Asian Rural Women's Conference on "Rights, Empowerment and Liberation", currently taking place in the remote village of Palavoy in Arakkonam (Thiruvellore district) of Tamil Nadu. It is a gathering which will culminate in a massive public rally of an anticipated 10,000 people in Chennai on 8 March 2008. The conference is being organised by the Tamil Nadu Women's Forum, Tamil Nadu Dalit Women's forum, and Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED) in collaboration with Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Asia and the Pacific (based in Malaysia) which is providing secretariat support. [...more]

Asian Rural Women on Women's Day 2008: "Because Women Are Still Not Equal"
PRESS RELEASE - 5 March 2008
More than a thousand rural women are coming together in Palavoy, Arakkonam (District Thiruvellore, Tamil Nadu) on 6-8 March 2007 for the Asian Rural Women's Conference (ARWC). They will gather to share and strengthen the rural and indigenous women's movement, and to build and assert women's leadership and their human rights. This is the first time ever that rural women are specifically collecting in such large numbers in India on the occasion of the International Women's Day. [...more]

Migrant Workers - Their Voices, Struggles and Reclaiming their Rights!
Testimonies from Rural Women
Submitted by CARAM Asia for the 1st Asian Rural Women's Conference (ARWC) March 2008 Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu, India [...more]

On the Move: Asia's Rural Women
The empowerment of Asia's rural women against the injustices of neoliberalism and ancient prejudice must begin with the assertion of their political power, Dr Irene Fernandez, Director of the Malaysian women's rights group Tenaganita tells R.B. Bhattacharjee in the run up to the Asian Rural Women's Conference to be held from March 6 - 8, 2008 in Chennai, India. [...more]

Ka Lita: A Symbol of Peasant Women in the Philippines
By the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC)
"I have chosen the road less traveled and hopefully the younger generation can learn from my story. I could have chosen to live an ordinary and simple life of a farmer. Instead I chose a different route - serving the Filipino masses, especially peasants, and leading them to struggle for genuine agrarian reform and freedom", stated Estrelita "Ka Lita" Mariano, a prominent peasant woman leader in the Philippines.
Estrelita " Ka Lita" Mariano, 48, came from a poor peasant family in Nueva Ecija. Like a normal peasant family, she grew up taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, washing and ironing clothes, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, going to market, weeding and planting in the farm. Name it and she had done it, she lives up to her sector's way of life. [...more]

UN gender equality mission fails 80% of women
Press Release - 26 February 2008
Thousands of Asian rural women gather to demand justice, rights, empowerment and liberation this International Women's Day 2008!
DECADES of efforts by international institutions, including the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), to put women on an equitable footing in society have achieved very little in correcting the unjust, oppressive and often violent socio-economic realities that burden the lives of 80% of women living in rural areas. [...more]