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International Women's Day 2013

Mar 8, 2013 |

Today is International Women's Day, a day set aside to celebrate women and their economic, political, and social achievements around the world. It is also a time to focus on places and situations where women's rights, equality, health, and safety still have a long way to go. Collected below are images of women around the world -- powerful and poor, young and old -- on International Women's Day. [38 photos]

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A Filipino protester tries to break through a row of riot police as her group is prevented from marching closer to the U.S. Embassy in Manila to commemorate International Women's Day in the Philippines, on March 8, 2013. Thousands of Filipinos commemorated Women's Day with calls to stop violence against women and children. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

The fourteen current elected or appointed female heads of government. From top left, in order by length of time in office: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. President of Argentina, Hasina Wazed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, Laura Chinchilla, President of Costa Rica, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, Yingluck Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark, Portia Simpson-Miller, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, and Park Geun-hye, the newly elected President of South Korea. (Reuters/Sebastien Pirlet, Thierry Gouegnon, Marcos Brindicci, Sukree Sukplang, Ints Kalnins, Petar Kujundzic, Andrea De Silva, Andrew Taylor, Claudio Reyes, Bazuki Muhammad, Ints Kalnins, Lucas Jackson, Unati Ngamntwini, Ahn Young-joon) #

Indian salt worker Walbai Ayyubbhai, 70, checks her rake at a salt pan on the eve of International Women's Day in the Santalpur region of Little Rann of Kutch, India, on March 7, 2013. Women have always faced higher unemployment rates than men, and the sluggish global economy in recent years has only made the situation worse, the International Labour Organization said in December 2012. (Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images) #

Female Marine recruits Princesse Aldrete (left) and Genisis Ordonez (right) stand in formation following hand-to-hand combat training during boot camp at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina, on February 27, 2013. Female enlisted Marines have gone through recruit training at the base since 1949. About 11 percent of female recruits who arrive at the boot camp fail to complete the training, which can be physically and mentally demanding. On January 24, 2013 Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta rescinded an order, which had been in place since 1994, that restricted women from being attached to ground combat units. About six percent of enlisted Marines are female. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #

A sex worker talks to a man outside a hotel in the Geylang red light district in Singapore, on February 8, 2013. In the Geylang district, licensed prostitutes from China, Thailand and other Asian countries work in brothels that are technically illegal but obvious in their purpose with red lights and flashing signs. An unlicensed and illegal sex trade is rampant in doorways and on street corners elsewhere in Geylang. (Reuters/Edgar Su) #

Dr. Crezoit Yapo of the Association of Women Researchers in the Ivory Coast (AFEMC-CI) works in her laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Abidjan, on March 5, 2013. The association was formed to raise the profile of women working in scientific research in the Ivory Coast. It helps women raise funding for their projects and seeks to promote scientific research, a field dominated by men, as a viable career option among young women by helping them obtain scholarships. (Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon) #

An Indian woman walks past a billboard of Australian model Miranda Kerr in Mumbai, on on March 8, 2013. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP/Getty Images) #

Maryland guards Chloe Pavlech, right, and Sequoia Austin celebrate after Austin scored in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wake Forest in College Park, Maryland, on March 3, 2013. Maryland won 88-61. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) #

A bodyguard from the National Protection Unit (NPU) wears her flak jacket before a training session at a firing range near Bogota, Colombia, on March 1, 2013. (Reuters/Jose Miguel Gomez) #

A woman shouts slogans as she protests violence against women, at the close of the National Meeting of Rural Women in Brasilia, Brazil, on February 21, 2013. (Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino) #

Bahraini women watch the funeral of Habib Ibrahim, 88, a man whose family and opposition rights activists allege died from tear gas fired by police during earlier clashes in Malkiya village, Bahrain, Sunday, Jan 13, 2013. Graffiti on the wall reads," Down Hamad," referring to the king of Bahrain, along with images of people who died during the unrest. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali) #

Pakistani women cook for their family using a fire inside their makeshift home, in a slum in Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) #

A model is made up backstage during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Madrid, on February 20, 2013. (Reuters/Juan Medina) #

Photographers shoot pictures and video of a model presenting a creation by French designer Barbara Bui as part of her Fall-Winter 2013/2014 women's ready-to-wear fashion show during Paris fashion week, on February 28, 2013. (Reuters/Charles Platiau) #

Indian laborers work to lay a cable for an electricity company in Ahmadabad, India, on March 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) #

Mirjam Jaeger of Switzerland competes in the women's Ski Halfpipe event at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Oslo, Norway, on March 5, 2013. (AP Photo /Stian Lysberg Solum, NTB scanpix) #

Police officers participate in a parade during the celebration of the 183rd anniversary of the Uruguayan Police Force in downtown Montevideo, on December 18, 2012. (Reuters/Andres Stapff) #

Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai (center) waves with nurses as she is discharged from The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, on January 4, 2013. The Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education was discharged from the specialist British hospital after doctors said she was well enough to spend some time recovering with her family. Fifteen-year-old Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban in October last year and brought to Britain for treatment, is due to be re-admitted for reconstructive surgery to her skull, doctors said. (Reuters/Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham) #

Chandani, 22, who works as a cab driver for a social enterprise which claims to provide safe and secure cab services for women driven by women, sits inside her car on a street in New Delhi, on January 13, 2013. Chandani said demand for their cabs has increased after a 23-year-old medical student was gang raped in New Delhi. "I am doing a very unconventional job for women. Given that I do night shifts, I carry pepper spray bottle and I'm trained in self-defense. Initially I faced a lot of problems but driving cabs at night has helped me to overcome my fears", said Chandani who has been working as a cab driver for the last four years. (Reuters/Mansi Thapliyal) #

Riot police officers arrest a women's rights group Femen activist in front of the European Union Council building during a protest against the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Brussels, on December 21, 2012. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir) #

A young Indian girl pedals a rickshaw loaded with vegetables as her father pushes it on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, on March 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) #

Prison inmates dance in opposition to violence against women as they participate in a One Billion Rising event at the San Francisco County Jail #5 on Valentine's Day in San Bruno, California, on February 14, 2013. The event, with participants from 250 countries performing a choreographed dance routine on a day associated with romantic love, aimed to raise awareness about violence against women in which one in three women across the globe will be raped or beaten in their lifetime. (Reuters/Stephen Lam) #

Masaai women line up at dawn to vote in a general election in Kumpa, Kenya, on March 4, 2013. Five years after more than 1,000 people were killed in election-related violence, Kenyans went to the polls on Monday to begin casting votes in a nationwide election seen as the country's most important - and complicated - in its 50-year history. (AP Photo/Riccardo Gangale) #

An image depicting a female North Korean soldier leading an artillery attack is projected on a large screen behind singers and the Unhasu Orchestra during a concert to mark International Women's Day in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Friday, March 8, 2013. The text at the top of the screen reads, "We are the General's female coastal artillery troops." (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin) #

Zahraa, an Iraqi woman who fled the conflict in her country, attends an event organized by Medecins Sans Frontieres, at a hospital in Amman, Jordan, on March 7, 2013. Dozens of women who were injured during the conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Syria currently attend daily treatment sessions while undergoing surgeries at the hospital run by the Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres. (Reuters/Ali Jarekji) #

Sakiba Covic (left) and Semsa Hadzo wait for the elevator in a coal mine in Breza, March 5, 2013. Covic and Hadzo are the only female coal miners in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their job requires them to take daily measurements of air, gas and to supervise the general safety of the mine, according to local media. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic) #

Bushra, the millionth refugee to flee Syria registered by the UNHCR, holds her daughter inside a shanty rented by her missing husband's family in a poor neighborhood at the entrance of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, on March 7, 2013. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images) #

Women,part of the Sawt al-Haq (Voice of Rights), stand with their weapons as they undergo military training in Aleppo, Syria, on February 17, 2013. A group of women are undergoing military training to form the Nazek Obeid group, based on the frontline of Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed neighborhood. (Reuters/Muzaffar Salman) #

Kurdish members of the Popular Protection Units stand guard at a check point near the northeastern city of Qamishli, Syria, on March 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo) #

Demonstrators perform a street play about rape during a protest near India's parliament in New Delhi, on February 21, 2013. Hundreds of demonstrators on Thursday held a protest near the parliament demanding Indian lawmakers to implement harsher punishments and quicker trials for rape cases following the gang rape of a student that shook the nation on December 16. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) #

Farmer Bintou Samake plants beans while carrying her son Mahamadou on her back on a farm in Heremakono, Mali, on January 22, 2013. (Reuters/Joe Penney) #

Mongolian singer Gennie, 26, a cast member in the documentary "Mongolian Bling", poses for a photo at an undisclosed location. Rap and the hip-hop culture it extols are helping young Mongolians express the stresses of dealing with an increasingly urban society and all its woes. "Mongolian Bling", a 90-minute documentary by Australian Benj Binks, showcases how hip-hop has become a popular vehicle of expression for the nation's stress. A wife and a mother, Gennie sings about politics, women's issues and the environment, and is called the "queen of Mongolian hip-hop". (Reuters/Benj Binks/Mongolian Bling) #

Paramilitary rangers listen to the commander as they train in their camp in the troubled Yala province in southern Thailand, on March 7, 2013. (Reuters/Damir Sagolj) #

Pregnant Sabine Heinrich, age 36, in her living room in Eichenau, Germany, on December 12, 2012. (Reuters/Michaela Rehle) #

Tech graduate Titilope Oluwaseyilayo poses for a picture in front of her house in the Shomolu district of Lagos, Nigeria, on October 19, 2012. (Reuters/Joe Penney) #

A woman drives a car simulator at a driving school in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 5, 2013. Struggling to achieve some of their dreams in a conservative society, an increasing number of Yemeni women are taking their driving test to learn to drive in a safe environment. (Reuters/Khaled Abdullah) #

A woman attends a training session of the Boxgirls Berlin, on March 6, 2013. The Boxgirls Berlin are part of the Boxgirls International organization that supports women and girls using boxing programs as a catalyst for social change in their cities with the slogan 'Strong Girls, Save Communities' and supporting the women and girls empowerment. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) #

A widow poses for a picture inside her room at the Meera Sahavagini ashram in the pilgrimage town of Vrindavan in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on March 6, 2013. Hundreds of widows who have been abandoned by their families live in the shelter, or ashram, run by the NGO Sulabh International. In India, when a man dies, traditionally his widow is expected to renounce all earthly pleasures, such as wearing colorful clothes or looking attractive, and she can face severe social discrimination. Sulabh International works to provide abandoned widows with education, healthcare and vocational skills. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) #