In Pictures: How Women Worldwide Marked International Women's Day

From asylum seekers protesting at the border in Turkey to topless environmental activists on Waterloo Bridge, here's how women around the globe marked March 8.
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Hundreds-of-thousands of women poured out onto streets around the world on Sunday to mark International Women’s Day.

From Spain to Afghanistan, women from every background made their presence felt – shouting slogans, banging pots and pans, and blocking streets in order to draw attention to continued gender inequality. 

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Protesters move through the streets of Baghdad, Iraq to mark International Women's Day.
Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters

Each year March 8 is marked with a distinct theme, with 2020 celebrations branded #EachForEqual in pursuit of “a gender equal world” – in business, government, sport, healthcare, and money. 

In the UK the date was marked by hundreds of people marching on Whitehall in a protest that heavily referenced he growing climate crisis at this year’s event and the impact it is having on women in some of the poorest parts of the world.

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Women line up with their hands arranged as equality signs during a friendly football match in Abuja, Nigeria.
REUTERS

More than 30 women from Extinction Rebellion gathered on Waterloo Bridge – sometimes known as the Ladies’ Bridge – in honour of the female construction workers who helped build it – on Sunday morning and protested topless,

A spokeswoman for the group said: “It’s mainly women in poorer countries in the global south that are experiencing the increase in violence but this will be the reality for all women if the climate and ecological crisis continues to go unaddressed.”

“We are here to raise the alarm about what is happening to our sisters around the world and to tell women in the UK the climate and ecological emergency is your issue – it will affect you as a woman if we do not persuade our Government to take urgent action starting now.”

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Mexican women protest against femicide in Mexico during a protest in Paris.
Pascal Rossignol / Reuters

Around the world women celebrated and protested in equal measure, with scenes of a jubilant fun-run event in Belarus contrasting with asylum seekers stranded at the Turkish border holding cardboard signs and chanting. 

Police in Kyrgyzstan detained dozens of women’s rights activists on Sunday shortly after journalists witnessed the protesters being attacked by masked men.

The activists gathered in one of the squares of capital Bishkek in the Central Asian country, to stage a march of solidarity against violence on International Women’s Day.

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A supporter of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega takes part in a march called "Brave Women! Victorious women!" to mark International Women's Day in Managua, Nicaragua.
Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters

But masked men, some of whom wore traditional Kyrgyz white felt hats, attacked the protesters, grabbing and tearing apart their banners, in the presence of multiple journalists including a Reuters reporter.

The attackers left as soon as police arrived on the scene and proceeded to detain about 50 activists, mostly women.

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Women attend the "Beauty Run" race to mark March 8 in Minsk, Belarus.
Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

Women and men in Islamabad, Pakistan, were pelted with stones, shoes and sticks as they joined the largest such rally in the country – the Aurat March – which is named using the Urdu word for women.

Dozens of men and women from the Red Mosque brigade, consisting of several local militant groups, staged a rival rally just across from the women’s march venue, district deputy commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said.

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Women's rights activists shout slogans during a protest Manila, Philippines.
REUTERS

Police official Mazhar Niazi said the officers blocked the Islamists as they tried to break through a cordon to attack the marchers.

A Reuters witness and Niazi said the Islamists threw stones, bricks, sticks and shoes at the marchers. Niazi said no one was injured.

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Participants react on the finish line of a 400m running event held on the International Women's day in Moscow, during which hundreds of me run with a tulip and gift it to women on the finishing line.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Mexico’s Valentina Fluchaire was crowned in Thailand as winner of what is billed as the world’s biggest transgender pageant on Saturday.

Although Miss International Queen 2020 went ahead, unlike many events canceled around the world since the coronavirus outbreak emerged in China, the crowd was markedly smaller than in previous years, with many empty seats.

Fluchaire hailed her victory as a win for all trans-women in Latin America.

“This is for you, I made this for you,” she said.

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Lebanese women, including one wearing a protective mask due to coronavirus, gesture during a march in Beirut.
ANWAR AMRO via Getty Images
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Women riding bicycles participate in the "Purple Ride" feminist women's bicycle protest Berlin, Germany.
Sean Gallup via Getty Images
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Protesters hold placards during a protest in Bandung, Indonesia.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
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KATHMANDU, NEPAL - 2020/03/08: A woman holds a placard during a protest against gender inequality and sexual violence in Kathmandu, Nepal.
SOPA Images via Getty Images
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31 women from Extinction Rebellion form a topless protest chain on Waterloo Bridge.
Jonathan Brady - PA Images via Getty Images
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Women making noise hitting pots and pans protesting in Sol Square, Madrid, Spain. to mark the start of the International Women's Day.
Marcos del Mazo via Getty Images
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Disabled Bangladeshi women play basketball during a match in Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Women gesture from a police van after they were arrested while protesting against gender-based violence to mark International Women's Day in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The detentions came after the men wearing face masks and pointed national hats attacked the crowd, tearing up their posters, popping balloons with toy pistols and throwing eggs at the women before fleeing the scene.
VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO via Getty Images
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Afghan civil activists gather along a road in Kabul.
WAKIL KOHSAR via Getty Images
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Asylum Seekers, mostly women, waiting at Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing to reach Europe, stage a demonstration at the buffer zone demanding to open the gate during 'International Women's Day', in Erdine, Turkey.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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Asylum Seekers, mostly women, waiting at Turkey's Pazarkule border crossing to reach Europe, stage a demonstration at the buffer zone demanding to open the gate during 'International Women's Day', in Erdine, Turkey.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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Veiled female supporters of Pakistani Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) carry placards and banners as they march during a rally to mark the International Women's Day in Islamabad.
AAMIR QURESHI via Getty Images