Thousands of people – while the demonstration was still going on, the police counted around 6,500 – took to the streets in Vienna in the evening to campaign for women’s rights worldwide.
In addition to the oppressed women in Iran, the “Take Back the Streets” event put the focus of the Women’s Day event on all “FLINTA*” people, i.e. women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people. From 5:00 p.m. on Yppenplatz in Vienna-Ottakring, rainbow flags and banners with demands to stop violence against women, equal pay and revolution, increased.
Photo series with 4 pictures
An “awareness team” was on hand should participants find themselves in discriminatory situations. It would be loud until the day when all people can decide what happens to their bodies, the organizers said in a speech. With calls like “Alerta, Queer Feminista”, “No God, no state, no patriarchy”, “Woman, life, freedom” and “High international solidarity”, demonstrators finally moved from the very well-filled Yppenplatz around 6.30 p.m Direction Sigmund Freud Park.
Solidarity with women in Iran
However, even before the march started, speakers drew attention to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria and to those women who are fighting for their freedom in Iran. Human rights activist Aida Karimi denounced the systematic discrimination against women in Iran and the killing and imprisonment of protesting women and girls.
Sandra Konstatzky on International Women’s Day
Sandra Konstatzky, head of the Ombud for Equal Treatment, knows what still needs to change for women in society and what is being fought for on International Women’s Day.
Karimi said she would have been executed in Iran for what she is doing right now. The previous speaker, Sara Pouria, called on Austria, among other things, to end cooperation with the Islamic Republic and to close the Iranian embassy in Vienna.
“Strong increase in transphobia”
Elsewhere, the rights of non-binary people were an issue: Rhonda D’Vine from the Non-Binary Association (VENIB) spoke out in favor of their legal recognition. Because a gender entry other than female or male is currently not open to trans people.
She identified a “sharp increase in open transphobia” and referred to the passage of transphobic laws in several US states. Finally, in the Sigmund-Freud-Park, femicide, abortion rights and sex workers were discussed.
