SACS celebrates Intl.Women’s Day

CHICAGO, IL – The International Women’s Day (IWD) was celebrated in Chicago on March 8 with the theme #PressforProgress in line with the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report which measured gender inequality.

The South Asian Cultural Society of Chicago (SACS), a non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve heritage, language, and culture by promoting education, celebrated its 4th annual event by inviting a panel of speakers to discuss the hardships and struggles they or other women have overcome in their life or career.

President and founder of the organization, Ghousia Sultana, the day was marked to highlight the achievements women have made in the South Asian community as a result of their efforts and struggles.

Among other speakers, Madhu Krishnamurthy, Anjum Rubina, Gwendolyn Brewer, Sharmin Shahjahan, Afshan Khan, and Syed Hussaini weighed in by discussing and sharing personal experiences and struggles that they faced before reaching the platform where they stand today.

Sultana compared herself to Christopher Columbus–an explorer travelling to a foreign land–during a time when cell phones and internet were practically non-existent. Shahjahan, a village trustee for Hanover Park, discussed the importance of civic engagement and how getting involved with local organizations helped her engage with the community and eventually lead her to the position she is at today.

Rubina talked about the value of women’s resilience and stigma’s endured within the South Asian community to create one’s own identity. Brewer identified with the theme by disclosing her experience of raising two children as a single parent and being homeless and how social services within the community really helped her.

Krishnamurthy talked about how she came from a family of five girls all of whom are highly qualified professionals and how they broke the barriers for the unexpected with the support of their parents. Khan, a lawyer who specializes in immigration and citizenship, discussed the progresses her female clients have made who were victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking.

Hussaini expressed his concerns regarding gender parity and equal pay stating women making .75 cents to the dollar is an injustice. Being a father of a teenage daughter himself, he felt that it shouldn’t be just women celebrating and honoring IWD.

IWD was born in early 1900’s. Over the decades, the objective of IWD has evolved and embraced culture and ethnicity to emerge as a celebration of appreciation, respect, and love towards women.