08/03/2026
🌍 International Women’s Day 2026
✨ Honoring Feminist Progress in Opposing Violence and Advancing Justice
Across time and societies, women have organized movements against various forms of gender-based brutality including foot binding, female ge***al mutilation, honor killing, domestic violence, trafficking, child marriage, r**e, sexual assault, and harassment.
While recent revelations about Jeffrey Epstein’s files remind us of the continued prevalence of violence against women, it is crucial to remember that women have not been silent in the face of injustice. Their activism—historical and contemporary, global and local—contributes to advancing legal, social, and cultural changes.
🌏 Around the world, feminist activists have mobilized against various forms of violence toward women and girls.
Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi, in spite of death threats, and organizations such as The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices have challenged female ge***al mutilation through public advocacy, supported legal reform, and resisted patriarchal norms.
Jordanian journalist Rana Husseini exposed the practice of honor killings globally, while organizations such as the UK-based Karma Nirvana supported survivors of honor-killing violence and challenged violence-enabling cultural frameworks.
Efforts to end the trafficking of women and children have been led by feminist activists such as Marijana Savić, founder of NGO Atina, and Dorchen Leidholdt, director of the Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families in New York City.
To combat child marriage, Malawian activist Memory Banda led a campaign called “I will marry when I want” that contributed to criminalizing marriages of minors in her country. She also founded the Malawi-based NGO, Foundation for Girls Leadership, in 2018 to offer training to girls to strengthen their rights, promote their access to education and reproductive health services, and end early marriage.
In confronting domestic and sexual violence, feminist activists such as Ellen Pence and Faye Williams have strengthened theoretical understanding, policy interventions, and public awareness since the 1970s, while organizations such as Global Rights for Women and Women Against Violence Europe have promoted survivor empowerment and policy reform since the 1990s.
The MeToo movement, founded by Tarana Burke in 2006 and propelled into global visibility when the hashtag went viral in 2017, has drawn widespread attention to sexual violence and expanded support for survivors worldwide.
In China, feminist activists and organizations have played a pivotal role in confronting gender-based violence and advancing gender equality. Early feminist groups, such as the Natural Foot Society, and activists such as Qiu Jin fought against footbinding and forced marriage, helping to reshape gender norms in the late Qing period.
In the early decades of the People’s Republic of China, state feminists—CCP women officials in the socialist period who used their political status power to pursue gender equality and women’s liberation within the framework of the socialist state—such as Deng Yingchao and Cai Chang, leveraged their political roles to promote gender equality and advance legal reforms such as the 1950 Marriage Law, which prohibited arranged and child marriages and increased women’s autonomy in marriage and divorce (Wang, 2021).
Following the Reform and Opening period, legal-rights advocates such as Guo Jianmei, as well as organizations such as the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center and the Anti Domestic Violence Network, offered legal support to victims of domestic violence and collaborated with the government to strengthen law and policy development and implementation. In recent years, young feminist activists such as Xianzi have used digital platforms to confront sexual violence and r**e. Their activism has helped broaden public discussions of gender inequality, even as state censorship has tightened.
In Hong Kong, feminist organizations and activists are tackling various forms of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence through legal reform, survivor support services, and public education. Feminist resistance to gender-based exploitation in Hong Kong can be traced back to campaigns against the Mui Tsai system and concubinage, which subjected women and girls to servitude, sexual exploitation, and patriarchal control, from the 1880s to the 1980s during the British colonial period.
Feminist scholars such as F***y Cheung significantly contributed to the development of local social movements against r**e, sexual violence, and concubinage. NGOs such as Harmony House have worked on domestic violence prevention, shelter services, and batterer intervention programs. In the 1990s, local feminists established organizations such as the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women and RainLily that have provided counseling, forensic support, and court accompaniment for survivors of r**e and sexual assault.
🌿Across these diverse contexts—global, mainland China, and Hong Kong—feminist activism continues to illuminate the structural roots of gender‑based violence, expand public awareness, and promote legal and cultural transformation. These movements demonstrate the courage, solidarity, and resilience of women who have confronted deeply entrenched systems of power, often at significant personal risk.
💜On this International Women’s Day, we honor the vision, bravery, and determination of feminist pioneers across generations, and we commit to carrying forward their legacy in the ongoing pursuit of gender equality, justice, and freedom from violence.
2026 國際婦女節：向無畏的女性主義者致敬
在世界各地，女性跨越世代，持續對抗各種形式的性別暴力，包括裹足、女性割禮、名譽謀殺，家庭暴力、人口販運、童婚、性侵與性騷擾。雖然近期愛潑斯坦文件的曝光提醒我們針對女性的暴力依然普遍，但我們更要記得：面對不公，女性從未沉默。她們在歷史與當下、全球與地方的行動，持續推動法律、社會與文化的轉變。
全球各地的女性主義行動者持續動員，反抗針對女性與女孩的暴力。儘管面對死亡威脅，埃及女性主義者娜瓦爾·艾‧沙達維，以及「非洲傳統習俗委員會」等組織共同反對女性割禮，透過公共倡議支持法律改革，並抵抗支持這一陋習的父權文化。約旦記者拉娜·侯賽尼揭露全球名譽謀殺的現象，而英國組織 Karma Nirvana 則援助榮譽謀殺暴力的倖存者，並挑戰促成此種性別暴力的文化框架。在打擊女性與兒童人口販賣方面，女性主義行動者，如非政府組織 Atina 的創辦人馬莉亞娜·薩維奇，以及紐約 Sanctuary for Families 家暴受害者法律服務中心主任多琴·萊德霍爾特，均在前線努力。為終止童婚，馬拉威行動者梅莫里·班達領導了「我想結婚，就等我願意時」運動，促成該國將童婚入罪。她於 2018 年創立「女孩領導力基金會」，為女孩提供教育與生殖健康資源，並推動終止早婚。在對抗家庭暴力與性暴力方面，自 1970 年代起，女性主義者如艾倫·潘斯與費伊·威廉斯對強化該議題的理論分析、政策介入與公共
關注做出重要貢獻；而自 1990 年代起，像「全球女性權利」、「歐洲反對女性暴力」等團體一直致力於倖存者賦權與政策改革。2006 年由塔蘭娜·柏克創立的 MeToo 運動，於 2017 年通過網絡傳媒引起全球對性暴力議題的極大關注，並擴大倖存者的支持網絡。
在中國，女性主義行動者與組織在對抗性別暴力與推動性別平等方面扮演重要角色。早期的女性團體，如「天足會」，以及像秋瑾等女性主義者在清朝末期積極反對裹足與包辦婚姻，推動性別規範改變。中華人民共和國成立初期，在政府內任職的國家女性主義者，如鄧穎超和蔡暢，利用其政治位置推動性別平等，促成包括 1950 年《婚姻法》在內的重要法律改革，在禁止包辦婚姻與童婚，提升女性結婚與離婚自由等方面做出重大貢獻（Wang, 2021）。改革開放後，法律維權倡議者如郭建梅，以及「北京眾澤婦女法律諮詢服務中心」與「反對家庭暴力網絡」等組織，為家庭暴力受害者提供法律支援，並與政府合作加強相關法律政策的推出與落實。近年來，年輕女性主義者如弦子等透過網絡對抗性暴力。儘管國家審查收緊，她們的行動仍拓展了對性別暴力公共討論的空間，使性別不平等議題獲得更大關注。
在香港，女性主義組織與行動者透過法律改革、受害者者支援服務與公共教育，對抗性剝削與性別暴力。香港女性主義的抵抗歷史可追溯至反對「妹仔制度」與
納妾制度的運動——這些制度自 1880 年代至 1980 年代的英殖時期，使女性與女孩陷入勞役、性剝削與父權控制。張妙清等學者為香港反對強暴、性暴力與納妾制度的社會運動開展作出重要貢獻。「和諧之家」等非政府組織提供家暴預防、庇護與施暴者介入服務。1990 年代本地女性主義者創立「關注婦女性暴力協會」與「風雨蘭」等組織，為強暴與性侵受害者提供諮商、法醫支援與出庭陪同。
無論在全球、中國大陸或香港，女性主義行動持續揭露性別暴力的結構根源、提升公共意識，並推動法律與文化的轉型。這些努力展現了女性在面對結構性不公和暴力時的勇氣、團結與韌性，即使需要她們付出面臨危險和犧牲。在這個國際婦女節，我們向不同時代和地區的女性主義先驅致敬，並承諾延續她們的精神和理想，持續追求性別平等、正義與和平。
📚 References and further reading: https://shorturl.at/PUjMf
