On Sunday, in the center of Skopje, on the occasion of March 8 – International Women’s Day, the traditional march for women’s rights will be held. The march will start at 12:00 in the “Woman Fighter” park, and will end in front of the stolen bust of Vera Jocikj, as a sign of protest and resistance to the factual and figurative erasure of women in our society.

This year, the slogan of the march is “We will not disappear”, which expresses the unwavering and necessary struggle of women to survive in a system and society that threatens their safety, does not protect them from abusers, forgets them, leaves them on the margins and erases them.

“Women exist on the margins of society, as well as on the margins of history, under constant risk of being erased, forgotten, killed. Women’s work is often invisible, belittled, underpaid and appropriated. A woman who works part-time has no health, social or pension insurance, which further complicates her economic independence and directly affects the possibility of paid maternity leave. For every ten employed men, there are only seven employed women,” the march organizers point out.

They recall that last year was marked by five femicides and a record number of gender-based violence in the last five years, and this year the violence continued with a huge number of new cases where women, although they reported it, were again ignored. On top of all this, discrimination, attacks and general neglect towards pregnant women, farmers, workers, unemployed women continue…

The public space is increasingly filled with misinformation that relativizes and normalizes violence and distorts the notion of gender equality. Women pay for institutional failure and avoidance of responsibility with their health and life, ignored when they seek help and without receiving justice.

“In addition, society is becoming militarized, nationalist and fascist speech is intensifying, we are witnessing wars and ecological disasters, and women are paying out of their own pockets for the unprecedented greed of a few. This system of inequality and supremacy survives on the back of women’s freedom and labor. Therefore, on March 8, we call for a march together to say and show that we remember, record, continue to exist and fight. We are marching through the streets of our cities to say: “We will not disappear,”” the organizers say.

Information about the march can be found on social media Instagram and Facebook.