March 8 'Revolution' for Vietnam women
On March 7, Nguyen Tuan Cuong, a businessman in Hanoi, got up early in the morning and went to the local market before rushing to the office. He decided to take over all the housework during the day for the sake of his wife and little daughter on the occasion of International Women's Day (March 8).
Like Cuong, all men in Vietnam have special feelings and expression towards "the other half of the world." There is a common joke that March 8 is the time for females to rise up and demand women's rights. That's why men often do "feminine" work during this time willingly without any complaint.
There are many ways to celebrate the day. Tran Kien, an engineer, said, "I will take my wife and two children to a small restaurant in Hanoi. When I and my honey were dating, I often presented her a rose on March 8, but now we have a family, so it should be more practical and realistic."
Since Vietnam fully opened its doors to the world in the early 1990s, the economy has developed quite quickly, bringing higher living standards for the people. Most businesses seized the chance to "exploit" the generous spending of people on occasions like International Women's Day.
Flowers, especially red roses, are the most popular among guys. Price ranges from U.S.$1 to even $200 (about 10 times of the income of a family in the countryside) for a bunch. Flower are everywhere, and the price often jumps during this time. Gifts like comestics, jewelry, and underwear are also most sought after.
Tran Thuy Quynh, head of the marketing department of Bao Tin Minh Chau Jewelry company, said that sales often rise 4-5 times on March 8, so her company has prepared a good stock of jewelry with many new models to meet the demand of consumers.
International Women's Day also brings side effects to the society. Many offer their female boss a bribe in the form of a March 8 gift or waste the money by buying expensive bunches of flowers for hundreds of dollars.
It is not like in the past, when people believed that a few meaningful words or actions to the beloved meant more than hundreds of valuable gifts.
Local women have their own domestic occasion called Vietnam's Women Day on Oct. 20. This day has become more and more popular among the youth in recent years, but less common than March 8.
As defined in the open-source Wikipedia, International Women's Day is marked on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women.
On the International Women's Day, may I wish all OhmyNews female reporters good health, happiness, and prosperity all the time. What about celebrations of the day in other countries? Why don't we, citizen reporters from every corner of the world, share the story about the day in their nations ?
By Nguyen Ngoc Trung - OhmyNews (.kr) - March 8, 2006.
6,000 Vietnamese women, children trafficked abroad in 2005
Vietnam reported 6,000 local women and children were trafficked abroad mainly for disadvantaged marriage, child adoption, and labor and sex slavery in 2005, a local official told Xinhua on Tuesday.
The victims were sent overseas mainly in the forms of touring and working abroad, and illegally crossing borders through border gates, the official from the Ho Chi Minh City Children Sponsoring Association said, declining to be named.
Many victims were trafficked to Cambodia, some of them, using fake passports, were eventually sent to a third destination like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, she said.
The Vietnamese government has recently adopted four projects on combating trafficking of children and women in the 2005-2010 period, which focus on four areas, namely strengthening propaganda and education on preventing children and women trafficking in the community, intensifying fights against human trafficking, building up legal documents on the issue, and giving stronger support to victims.
Xinhua - March 8, 2006.
For the advancement and equality of women
When evaluating the role and contributions of women, our beloved Uncle Ho once said: “The country of Vietnam is becoming more and more beautiful and prosperous thanks to the continuous efforts of women both young and old.” His compliment reflects the strong respect, belief and pride of the Party and people in different generations of Vietnamese women who have devoted their great efforts to national construction and defence.
Promoting their glorious tradition, Vietnamese women had made great sacrifices for national independence and freedom during the previous struggles for national salvation and were honoured with the golden praiseworthy words: “Heroic, undaunted, generous and capable.” After peace was restore and the country was reunified, women continued to make their boundless efforts to help overcome the war consequences and implement the renovation policy. They have actively joined the entire Party, armed forces and people in preserving political stability and socio-economic development and and in helping push ahead national industrialisation and modernisation for the target of “a prosperous people, a strong country and an equitable, democratic and civilised society.” Knowledge, creativity, information and technology are creating ever greater developmental potential for humanity. To this end, Vietnamese women face both opportunities and challenges to develop in the 21st century.
To realise the target of gender equality, our Party and State have always paid significant attention to improving the material, cultural and spiritual life of women by issuing more policies to support women and creating favourable conditions for them to participate in the country’s different fields. In 1979, Vietnam was one of the first countries to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). After over 20 years of implementing the convention, Vietnam has seen a number of remarkable achievements. 92% of women are literate, more women are elected as National Assembly deputies and members of other political organisations. The rate of female deputies of the eleventh National Assembly reached 27.31%, the highest number in Asia. About 70% of women enjoy public services such as electricity, cultural centres, medical stations and schools. However, there are still difficulties for women in some areas due to old-fashioned thinking such as “respect men and despise women,” including discrimination and poverty as well as the dangers of human trading, prostitution, drugs and family violence. These have loaded more weight on the shoulders of women and hindered the struggle for gender equality. During the renovation process, our Party and State has carried out many measures to prevent negative activities for women and to accelerate the liberation of women.
Being a social and political organisation representing women across the country, the Vietnam Women’s Union needs to improve its activities and co-ordinate closer with ministries, sectors, provinces and cities to create better conditions for women at home and in society. Reality shows that in order to implement gender equality, the Party and administration at different levels should issue socio-economic policies in favour of women to help them promote their role in the new period and to ensure the fulfilment of the target outlined in the 2001-2010 National Strategy for the Advancement of Vietnamese Women.
Nhan Dan - March 8, 2006.
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