March 9, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 5, 1424

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KABUL, March 8: Calls for peace, political clout and workplace protection were trumpeted across Asia as thousands celebrated International Women’s Day on Saturday.

More than 3,000 women attended a conference in Kabul at a tented venue that played host to last year’s Loya Jirga (grand assembly), at which women enjoyed their first political representation in 17 years.

President Hamid Karzai, who failed to attend the conference as previously scheduled, voiced his support for greater freedom in a written address delivered in his absence.

“Women ... have suffered more than everybody else over the past two decades and they deserve being given their rights,” he said.

“Moving towards the creation of a civilized society is impossible without the active participation of women.”

A lack of attention to women’s political rights, health concerns, basic literacy needs and protection from abuse are not endemic to Afghanistan, however, as women from Indonesia to Thailand sought to highlight.

Women activists in Thailand planned to hand over a petition to Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra demanding a better deal for women workers, but refused to do so because they were met by a junior official.

In Singapore, a political and civil rights group, Think Center, organized an exhibition of colourful dolls depicting women as professionals, housewives and prostitutes, to inspire the public to “reflect on how each of us could play our role to overcome such discrimination in our family, workplace, schools and society”.

Some 5,000 people took to the streets of Seoul seeking greater funding for gender-equality policies and gathering signatures for a campaign to press for the abolition of South Korea’s family registry system, under which only men can register as head of a family.

Women in the Indonesian capital Jakarta used Saturday’s International Women’s Day, a UN-organized event, to chastise their female president Megawati Sukarnoputri for not paying enough attention to women’s rights.

“Indonesia is led by a woman but we think she’s not paying adequate attention to our aspirations,” said former popular singer and activist Titik Qadarsih.—AFP