Monday is International Women’s Day, celebrating women’s achievements and focusing attention on rights and equality issues. In this part of the world March 8 was a major celebration under the Communists – and there have been mixed feelings about it since 1989.
International Women’s Day can be traced back to 1909, when the Socialist Party of America organised a Women’s Day in New York.
March 8 later became a national holiday celebrating women in the USSR and the day was predominantly marked by it and other Communist states, though the United Nations began observing it in the mid-1970s.
In Communist Czechoslovakia MDŽ (Mezinárodní den žen) was a very big deal – and saw high-achieving women from around the country invited to Prague Castle for an annual gala event with the president.