International Women’s Day 2023

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the CAT Club Amnesty hosted Ms Sahar Alyas from the United Nations as a guest speaker. In her role as Community Liaison Officer and Interpreter for the United Nations, Ms Alyas has worked to assist refugee communities across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Providing a powerful example of women’s achievement, Ms Alyas also runs HOPE Bangkok, a local organisation that sells handicrafts to raise funds, support and empower refugee women within our community. Students were provided the opportunity to also ask Ms Alyas questions, such as “How can we challenge gender discrimination and bias?” and “How can we better advocate for and celebrate women?”. The session with Ms Alyas ended with a spoken-word poem written specifically for International Women’s Day, by Mrs Ghogar, Secondary English Teacher. Watch the performance of her poem below!

In addition to Ms Alyas’ visit, our CPL Department ran a staff quiz about women in history, for which winners were awarded one of two biographies by champions of equity in education for girls and women – Malala Yousefzai and Michelle Obama. The Secondary Library also created a colourful display encouraging ‘everyone everywhere to step forward to truly #EmbraceEquity’ – the theme of 2023. Along with a brief timeline of International Women’s Day, the display includes books for a variety of age ranges and interests, including “Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls”, “Yes She Can”, “A History of the World in 21 Women”, “Stories for South Asian Super Girls” and “Invisible Women” among many others. Check out the complete selection online, here!

International Women’s Day has a variety of missions to help forge a gender equal world. Some of such missions include celebrating the women forging change, elevating the visibility of women creatives, building workplaces where women thrive and improving equality for women in tech. Within our Bangkok Patana community, we have a number of women taking the lead on such missions.