We all get super excited for events such as National Women’s Day because it generally means a free hall-pass for the day but how many of us even know the importance or significance of this event?
The public holiday is marked for August 9 because on that same day, in 1956 a group of women marched outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest of the legislation that insisted that black people carry a specific pass. Bear in mind this was smack in the thicket of the apartheid era. The women sang a protest song with the lyrics, Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo (Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock).
Today those words are a signifier of the strength and courage of women as well the important role that they play in society as well as in families. So on August 9, pay homage to the important ladies in your life by doing something special for them.
