Celebrate International Women's Day at The Hub with leading thinkers on women's rights

The event will feature Rummage and Roam stalls with vintage and pre-loved clothing for sale, live music and a thought-provoking panel discussion featuring three inspiring female leaders.

Cherie Brandon from Blue Mountains Women's Health and Resource Centre (BMWHRC) says it's exciting to be back in partnership with Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub and Springwood Neighbourhood Centre to host this important International Women's Day community event.

"Progressing gender equity is at the very heart of BMWHRC's mission," she said.

"We know that inequality underpins so many issues that continue to negatively impact women, girls and the gender diverse community. This event gives us the opportunity to come together as a community, hear from great speakers from the All About Women festival, as well as our local panel - and connect, celebrate and take real action to progress gender equity locally."

Following the first livestream from the Sydney Opera House, The War on Women, there will be a live and local panel discussion featuring: women's rights advocate Hava Rezaei, a Hazara woman (a minority ethnicity form Afghanistan) who was arrested by the Taliban and forced to flee to Australia with her two children; local high school principal, Emma Le Marquand, a passionate educator and; local activist and disability advocate Sophie Van der Velden.

The IWD 2023 theme is #embraceequity and, to co-founder of Alzara Support Association Hava Rezaei, this means recognising that not everyone has had the same chances or experiences in life and taking steps to fix those differences.

"Embracing equity means being aware of and doing something about the many ways women have been socially and economically disadvantaged and left out in the past," she said.

"This could mean working for equal pay for equal work, advocating for policies that support work-life balance and parental leave, and fighting against violence and discrimination based on gender."

Ms Rezaei said to her personally it's important to be aware of one's own privileges and biases and take steps to change them.

"It means listening to the stories and points of view of people who have been left out of society in the past and taking steps to help them gain power and equal rights."

She she described the phrase 'war on women' as the systematic discrimination and oppression that women face, especially when it comes to their reproductive rights, access to health care, and violence against them because of their gender. In Australia there has been a lot of discussion lately about gender-based violence and harassment and in March 2021 tens of thousands of women took to the streets to protest for systemic changes and more accountability for people who hurt other women.

"The Australian government has announced a number of plans to deal with these problems, ...many supporters say that these steps don't go far enough and that deeper cultural changes are needed to fix the problems that lead to unequal treatment of men and women and violence against women," she said.

Blaxland High School principal Emma Le Marquand has raised daughters and knows the value of equity.

"I've lived in the Mid-Mountains for 17 years with my husband, step-daughters and daughter. Achieving equity in access and outcome for our young people means we have dual responsibilities as the adults. Firstly, we have to work actively at removing barriers to opportunities whenever we encounter them. And secondly, we need to help our young people develop the skills to approach the world in ways that maximises their own and everyone else's access to opportunity," she said.

For program information and to register for the livestream sessions: www.bluemountainstheatre.com.au or www.bmwhrc.org

If you want to read the full interview with Hava Rezaei go to www.bluemountainstheatre.com.au/news-stories/