The 8th of March is International Women’s Day which in People’s Korea is a public holiday which women celebrate . In People’s Korea there are International Women’s Day cards and on March the 8th women are presented with flowers . This is because in People’s Korea women are respected as well as having legal gender equality .Women's equality is real and not just talk in the DPRK a. In People’s Korea. Some institutions and enterprises such as the March 8th Hotel in Sariwon bear the name March 8th.
People’s Korea right from Day One set about liberating women from feudalistic oppression . On the 30th of July 1946 the Provisional People’s Committee of North Korea passed the Law on Sexual Equality which for the first time in history gave women equal rights with men. Later gender equality was enshrined in the Socialist Constitution of the DPRK and other legislation protecting the rights of women was passed. Measures have been taken to realise women’s equality in practice such as the provision of free childcare including 24/7 nurseries.In People’s Korea the amount of maternity leave increased from 77 days in the 1970s to 150 days in the 1980s and a few years ago was increased to over 200 days which can be supplemented by regular and additional holidays. Women who have more than 3 children can work for 6 hours but get paid for an 8-hour day, something that is totally unheard of in a capitalist society.
As President KIM IL SUNG explained “If a society is to run normally women who account one half of the population must play their role satisfactorily if we are to revolutionize and working classize the whole of society we must also revolutionize and working classize women . Just as a wagon cannot run smoothly if only one of its wheels functions, so a society cannot develop on a sound basis when only men fulfill their duties .Only when women are revolutionized and actively participate in the revolution and construction can the whole of society be revolutionised and working classized”
Some may argue that some of the capitalist countries also have legalisation guaranteeing women’s rights and sexual equality . However, there is one massive difference between People’s Korea and capitalist countries that makes life for women qualitatively better ; the absence of the “sex industry “ , pornography , prostitution and degeneracy that not only exist in Western countries but have become all pervasive over the past 50 years . In People’s Korea there is no “page 3 of the Sun “ and you cannot buy pornography in the shops . There is no prostitution in the DPRK . The 1946 law on Sexual equality abolished prostitution . Article 249 of the DPRK criminal code makes prostitution an offence .
In the West women are not equal with men but are sex objects . The prevalence of pornography in capitalist countries create an environment in which there is a great deal of sexual violence against women . People’s Korea women are truly liberated because of the morally wholesome environment that people-centred socialism has created .
Long live March 8th International Women’s Day !
Long Live People’s Korea , land of true women’s equality !
Dr Dermot Hudson Chairman Korean Friendship Association UK Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea
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