Debate contribution: International Women’s Day 2024
Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 11 March 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- International Women’s Day 2024
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4270119
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Last Friday, International Women's Day was marked at Belfast City Hall with the unveiling of monuments to Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney, two iconic Belfast women whose lives were dedicated completely to opposing slavery, exploitation, injustice and oppression. Both were champions of gender equality, anti-sectarianism and social and national emancipation. The struggle for women's rights is hundreds of years old. Many brave women through the ages have challenged patriarchy, class and inequality. Those achievements and that sacrifice deserve to be celebrated in appropriate and significant ways. International Women's Day also points us towards what more needs to be done. In today's world, women continue to be denied economic, social and national freedoms. Nowhere is that more starkly apparent than in Palestine, particularly in Gaza. This year, there will have been no celebration of International Women's Day or of Mother's Day, particularly in the Gaza Strip. By 8 March — last Friday — Israel's war had killed 9,000 Palestinian women, with over 54,000 injured; 5,200 Palestinian women have lost their babies; 50,000 Palestinian women who are pregnant cannot give birth in a safe place because there are no hospitals, medical centres or safe places in which to give birth; 65,000 breastfeeding Palestinian mothers cannot feed their children properly or look after them safely; and, in the north of Gaza, 350,000 women and girls are starving. Half a million Palestinian women are homeless. The women of Palestine need to hear, see and feel our solidarity. Chun críochnú, déanfaidh mé aithris anois ar an rann seo atá tiomnaithe do mhisneach mhná na Palaistíne. Cuisle na mban; aoibhneas na mban; cineáltas, cruthaitheacht agus samhlaíocht na mban; daoirse, streachailt agus fulaingt na mban; diongbháilteacht agus tiomantas do chearta na mban; macalla na mban; ré úr do mhná gan leatrom ná cos ar bolg; dóchas agus fís na mban lenár linn; Ní saoirse mhná na cruinne go saoirse mhná na Palaistíne.
316 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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