Everyone knows about International Women's Day, which is celebrated on March 8th. But few people know that the planet also celebrates Women’s Night (or Women’s Historical Night). It falls on May 8 and is celebrated in Norway.
The Night of Women (Kvinnehistorisk Natt), who played a significant role in history, was invented in 2006 by feminists from the Norwegian city of Bergen.
The main requirements set by the organizers of this Night are — equal salaries for men and women (in modern Norway, women's salaries are significantly lower than men's salaries in similar positions) and affordable kindergartens. Under the influence of these factors, gender discrimination only intensifies: women have to stay at home with their children, and it is unprofitable to go to work and hire a nanny.
Another demand of the organizers of Women's Night — is the closure of strip clubs, which, in their opinion, « are strongholds of debauchery» and humiliate women. On one of the Nights, women's honor defenders staged a large-scale picket in Bergen — with banners, trumpets and denouncing songs, as a result of which all strip clubs in the city were closed for some time.
Norwegian Muslim feminists also defend a woman's right to wear a hijab only if it is her own choice, and urge people to pay attention to racist tendencies in the global feminist movement.
«The role of women in society is no less important than the role of men», — the organizers of feminist actions try to convey this idea to their fellow citizens. «There are monuments to men everywhere, men dominate the urban space, but the number of women who deserve respect is no less!», — they declare and annually post leaflets on the city walls depicting women inventors, women scientists, women politicians, writers, singers and artists.
In the photographs you can see: Marie Curie, Agatha Christie, Rosa Luxemburg, Alexandra Kollontai, Lesya Ukrainka, Anna Akhmatova, Yoko Ono, Valentina Tereshkova, Anna Politkovskaya, Anna Pavlova, Natalya Gorbanevskaya and others.
Since 2006, Women's Night was celebrated only in Bergen; in 2010, Oslo joined the action.