Happy Women's Day!

"Wathinta abafazi, wathinta imbokodo" (You strike a woman, you strike a rock)"

Today is Women's Day in South Africa. It commemorates a day in 1956 when 20,000 women marched to government buildings in Pretoria to protest against a law requiring black women to carry passes.

Erin and I made cookies to give to the security guards in our neighbourhood, and anyone else, who like us, is working on this public holiday.

I tried looking for uplifting stories about women in SA papers today, but so far haven't turned up much. Here's one, with a great headline, about the opening of a photo exhibit showcasing photos from the march in 1956 and of other South African women.

Here's something else that's pretty good. The article in the M&G's hard copy is a lot better, but it seems that the paper and the web version are only complementary, not identical, because I can't seem to find the article anywhere on the website. This part makes me hopeful: "Tshabalala-Msimang said an important finding was that infections in women under 20 years had continued to decline to 13,7% from 16,1% in 2004 and 15,9% in 2005."