Last year, I celebrated International Women's Day with hundreds of women from scheduled castes and tribes in India -- Dalits or "untouchables." I had been in the country for about a month, and I was assisting IJM colleagues man a booth as part of my ever-evolving (and always exciting) job description. Our glossy banners and thin, colorful sheets of A4-size paper were covered in curly Tamil script, information about forced labor. Information that we hoped would prevent these women, or anyone back in their tiny villages, from suffering under this illegal modern day slavery system. I was the very-much out of place American girl with the smile and the camera, documenting the event as an IJM intern -- and fellow woman.
This year, I celebrated the day by attending one of the 500 theaters showing Half the Sky, a documentary and televised panel discussion based on Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's incredible book of the same name. Though you missed the one-time event, don't miss the book. Seriously. Buy it now. To whet your appetite, check out Kristof's column from the Sunday NY Times: Learning From The Sin Of Sodom.
Today, I celebrate the women on many sides of this earth who have shown me what it means to hold up half the sky.
