International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 every year, as a day of commemoration of the struggle for women's rights.
It was first held on February 28, 1909 in New York, and by the International Women's Conference of 1910 it was established as "International Women's Day".
The few lines that follow are dedicated as a minimum honor to the memory of the passengers - victims of the tragic train collision in Tempi. Among the dead were girls like cold water, who in the prime of their youth fell victim to incompetent, irresponsible and unsuspecting politicians and officials, whose actions mercilessly hurt and insulted the people and indeed the Greek Levantes, who in this tragedy defied the death in order to save their fellow human beings.
The degradation of woman has deep roots; it seems that the female sex is paying dearly for Eve's original sin! If we go back to ancient times, the position of the woman was not so flattering for her personality. And it was the great Greek poet Euripides who first started the fight for the restoration of women in society.
The position of women in the Athenian state is well known. While for the Athenian free citizen there was the law of polygamy, and unlimited political rights, for Athens things were very different; every married woman had to be a faithful wife and child-bearing machine, without selfishness and with tolerance for men's sins. The woman had no right of equality with the man. Her position in Greek society naturally aroused the interest and troubled Euripides, a loyal student of Anaxagoras and admirer of Aspasia.
After all, at that time in Athens the "women's issue" was, as we know, a matter of fashion. While the perception of most Athenians and especially the aristocratic and conservative circles was that the woman should remain in this position without any protest, in the house of Pericles political and philological discussions were held by the few who saw things differently and constituted, historically , the forerunners of women's emancipation. Protagonist in this matter was Aspasia, the first feminist of antiquity, for whom unfortunately no written sources have survived.
For the first time, Euripides attempts to bring to the Athenian stage his reflection on the behavior of women of his time, to express opinions of timeless value and above all to sow the seed for the "emancipation" of the female sex. And women finally proved that they have the ability to assume the highest positions and offices, just as Euripides had "prophesied" in the Chorus of Medea: "Honor, honor to women, the race is coming".
In our time, unfortunately, there are painful and unacceptable phenomena of behavior against women.
The rape of women with the expression "me too" - which is said to have been established by the first rape victim, an activist, who used it on the Internet to denounce her adventure - is undoubtedly a shameful violation of women's rights. The movement, which was created, started in the USA and spread all over the world. This social phenomenon is the mirror of society itself, where human values have been flattened.
A second phenomenon is that of femicide, which was, of course, not unknown, but nowadays it has come to threaten our country, and not only, as advanced Technology brings to light similar incidents all over the world. 2021 was the year when men's deadly violence against women occupied the agenda of politicians in Europe.
Besides, today, the 21stο century in Iran women struggle for their "human" existence and their freedom. It is considered immoral for this country not to follow the state's brutal dress code for women, but it is moral for the Moral Police to take the life of a twenty-year-old woman for violating the dress code. This is the... Teaching of Ethics!
Let's hope that one day people's passions will be healed, and the celebration of International Women's Day will take place in a different global society, where women will also have the place they deserve.
Prof. Stella Priovolou, president of the Body of Emeritus Professors of the University of Athens, dean of the Municipal-People's University of Ag. Friday.
photo MAKY_OREL / https://pixabay.com
