Hour of Awareness for International Women’s Day

With this year’s theme being Break the Bias, International Women’s Day was recognized with an Hour of Awareness in downtown Belleville on Tuesday.

Members of Amnesty International Quinte, GRANquinte and Quinte Grannies for Africa spent the noon hour at the intersection of Bridge and Front Streets walking from corner to corner.

Members of Amnesty International Quinte, GRANquinte and Quinte Grannies for Africa mark International Women’s Day with the IWD Hour of Awareness at the intersection of Bridge and Front Streets, downtown Belleville, March 8, 2022. (Photo: Quinte News/Alana Cameron)

Mieke Thorne of Amnesty International Quinte says, while women have come a long way, there is still a lot of work to do for gender equity.

“We can just count our blessings and count of the freedom that we have in this country. But, we don’t have freedom unless we have freedom for everybody and we don’t just ask freedom for ourselves. We have to have freedom and take care of the world.”

Thorne says women continue to be victims of violence and denied basic rights like being able to work and to go to school.

“But then we have Afghanistan in which, now with the Taliban, the girls can’t go to school and women can’t have a career. There’s still child marriages, there’s still female genital cutting. There is so much that has to be done.”

Pamphlets they handed out listed some of the gender inequities going on around the world.

“Stand with the Afghan women on amnesty.org/petition. You can demand justice for the death of a 14-year-old girl that died after being raped.”

In past years, an International Women’s Day march has been held in the city but the lingering pandemic kept that from happening again this year.

Two of the groups are sponsoring Belleville Downtown DocFest films highlighting women’s rights.

Dying to Divorce is sponsored by GRANquinte while Amnesty International Quinte is sponsoring Bangla Surf Girls.