We have moved forward more than a century, but, contrary to what our Russian sisters hoped for, we find ourselves in a state of unlimited war. Our sisters all over the world, especially in the Global South, are suffering the brutal consequences of male bellicosity and colonialism.

At the same time, women have yet to reach full human status in the eyes of men. There isn’t a single country in the world where women and girls aren’t oppressed and exploited, and every political party and government has a hand in it. But even the rights we do have, all conquered through much struggle, are constantly threatened.

What is happening to our sisters in Afghanistan is an example of how quickly we can lose the most basic rights, without the rest of the male-dominated world lifting a finger to prevent it.

Women from other countries may think that being locked home with no windows, forbidden to sing or laugh even in private gatherings, is very far from their reality and could never happen to them. Is that so?

For women, it is all a matter of degree, but the underlying hatred is the same and we seem to be entering a new era of extreme misogyny, from religion oppression to alarming rates of rape and femicide, a lack of reproductive rights, exploitation of women’s bodies in every way imaginable or transgenderism, a misogynistic movement determined to colonize women’s rights and womanhood for themselves.

Every time women consent to what should never be admitted, be it because we are afraid of men or because of socialization for toxic empathy and accommodation of others’ desires, we lose rights that may take decades or centuries to get back.

This means we need to fight tooth and nail against the erosion of any right we currently have, all the while shooting for a vision of what we want to reach.

On International Women’s Day, a day set aside for women to express and assert our concerns for a better future for us all, we call on governments everywhere to recognize the fundamental, radical equality that women deserve. This is not to say men and women are the same. Men don’t menstruate or gestate, do they? But women deserve full human rights, dignity and respect, per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We deserve autonomy, to pursue education and ambitions, to have families or not, to move about freely without fear of rape or assault.

• We call for consent to be moved to the front of discussions regarding women’s rights and violations against us: another group cannot give our rights away against our will, which is why consent needs to be enshrined in international law. 
• We call for the world to recognize and embrace a new vision of humanity, where women are self-sovereign and autonomous and have no more reason to fear men. A world where women are not treated as second class human being, where no one gets left behind, where everyone gets fed, where children are cared for and educated, where advances are made because women have unique and precious gifts to contribute to the world and they are free to do it.
• We call on women from all over the world to join United Women for 8M and adapt the templates of the campaign to our local language and situation, focusing on whatever rights are being threatened in your region or being advanced by your organization.
• We also ask that the situation of Afghan women is put forward on this 8th of March: we need to speak for those who are being silenced in such extreme ways.