RANGPUR, March 9, 2025 (BSS) - Leaders of Bangladesh Narimukti Kendra at a post-procession rally have called for launching a social movement to uphold the dignity and rights of women and build a discrimination-free society.

The district unit of Bangladesh Narimukti Kendra brought out the procession from its office, paraded the main roads of the city and held the rally at the Rangpur Press Club premises on Saturday afternoon on the occasion of the International Women's Day 2025.

Advocate Kamrunnahar Khanam Shikha, district organizer of Bangladesh Narimukti Kendra, presided over the rally.

BSD (Marxist) district convener Anwar Hossain Bablu, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front district convener Shaju Basfor, women activists Puja Rani, Bristi Rani, and others addressed the rally.

Anwar Hossain Bablu said the women's movement began on March 8, 1857, in a New York yarn factory, where thousands of women protested wage inequality, long working hours, inhumane working environment and lack of voting rights.

"However, police brutally attacked them, leaving many injured, killed, or arrested. The movement then spread across the country," he added.

"Later, at the Second International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1910, socialist women leader Clara Zetkin proposed to declare March 8 as Women's Day, and it was accepted," Anwar Hossain Bablu said.

At the rally, Shaju Basfor said the International Women's Day is celebrated, but women have yet to fully achieve their dignity and rights.

He called for taking forward the spirit of women's rights and dignity and building a society without discrimination in line with the spirit of Women's Day.

Advocate Kamrunnahar Khanam Shikha demanded the implementation of effective measures to stop violence, torture, rape, and murder of women and children across the country, and called for the swift arrest and exemplary punishment of those responsible.

To prevent social degradation, Kamrunnahar Khanam Shikha emphasized the need for a movement against bad culture like obscenity, drugs, gambling, women and children abuse, rape, pornography, and fundamentalism.

She also called for the elimination of wage discrimination against female workers in various sectors, including fields, farms, hotels, and other workplaces.