USC is celebrating International Women’s Day with a three-part-series called, “Birds of No Nation.” It explores the global struggles for women’s rights through art and creativity. It’s sponsored by USC’s Visions and Voices and is taking place today at Doheny Memorial Library.
DAVID DELGADO: International Women’s Day to me, means that it is a day where we can all embrace the fact that we are not where we need to be as a collective global society in terms of women, women’s equity. And today here at Visions and Voices through the Birds of No Nation Series, we are highlighting the fact that the global fight for women’s rights obviously is not just here in the U.S. it is national. It is global.
David Delgado is a Visions and Voices staff member.
DELGADO: We are focusing on Afghanistan. We have three amazing Afghan artists and activists who, through their work, are highlighting the importance that is the liberation in all forms of women in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, women often face barriers in accessing healthcare, higher education, and can even be barred from working. And these Afghan artists highlight the struggles Afghan women face through their paintings, photography, and journalism.
USC Law student, Melanie Abramoff, is also participating. She’s standing in front of a blank canvas getting ready to paint. She says she’s inspired by the Afghan artists and plans to paint something that celebrates women’s accomplishments.
ABRAMOFF: Unfortunately, women are still oppressed and we are very thankful and lucky to live in a country where we are not secondary in the same way that women are considered secondary in other parts of the world. So it’s very important to lift up artists who are women, business people who are women and people who identify as women or were raised as women. So that way we can see different diverse opinions and understand the complexity, the complexities of what it is to be raised as a woman.
Sophie Lesinska is a librarian at Doheny.
LESINSKA: There’s it’s there’s a reason why this is International Women’s Day. So this event is is our gesture, the library’s gesture and vision and voices programs, a gesture of solidarity with the women of Afghanistan.
She explains the importance of all works being showcased today.
LESKINSKA: The Taliban takeover ruined lives, the lives of many Afghans, but particularly of women. And, uh, it it happened over a year ago. And we start forgetting about this. So many other things internationally have happened. But these women need us. Uh, we need to remember about them and give them as much support as we can.
And that’s what USC student, Tamara Margaryan, was doing. She was participating at the event. And she reminds us why it’s important to appreciate the women around us.
MARGARYAN: It just means taking a moment to talk to the women in your life that you appreciate. Maybe your mom, your friend’s sisters, and just kind of appreciate how all of them influence you and how they make your life better and to kind of take a day to dedicate it to the people you love, the women you love.
For Annenberg Media, I am Alexa Hernandez Diaz.