Happy International Women's Day!

Celebrations of Women's Day were started by the labor movements in the early 20th century in the US and Europe. Many nations have adopted such official or unofficial holidays since, the UN sponsored International Women's Day (March 8th) has been celebrated since 1975 and A 1977 UN General Assembly resolution calls for each member state to observe an annual "United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace." I thought it was particularly interesting that the date of this observance is not set by the United Nations, but left to individual states to be chosen based on local history, traditions, and standards.

My article this week is:

Violence Against Women in the Middle East
The theme of International Women's Day 2007 is ending impunity for violence against women and girls. Violence against girls and women is epidemic in the Middle East, just as in the rest of the world.
You can read it here

Word of The Week - Woman

Arabic (Im-RAH-ha) اِمْرَأَةٌ

Don't forget, you can always visit middleeasternculture.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Middle Eastern Culture.

For any topic related to Middle Eastern Culture, our forum is always available for free, fun online discussions -

Middle Eastern Culture Forum

We've been having some interesting discussions there this week on travel and languages.

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback! Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Julie L. Baumler, Middle Eastern Culture Editor

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