CubaPLUS Magazine

Throughout all times, women have been highly discriminated in general and, above all, Afro-descendants, largely due to the color of their skin.

Hence, since 1992, July 25 was designed the International Day of Afro-descendant women, during the First Latin American and Caribbean Meeting of women based in the Dominican Republic.

The date was chosen to commemorate the first congress that brought together more than 400 Latin American and Caribbean women that year, which addressed issues related to sexism, racial discrimination, poverty, migration and violence.

On that occasion, the Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women emerged, with the aim of fighting for the dignity and rights of black women as citizens with all their rights and duties.

Despite the struggle fought in the world in defense of the rights of women, today discrimination continues to be a daily issue in most countries of the world.

Women, as a social object, is one of the most common stereotypes to which it is subjected, in addition to multiple other forms of discrimination, including racism and in the workplace.

Just to quote one example, around 200 million people of African descent live in Latin America and the Caribbean, equivalent to 30 percent of the regional population, which suffers multiple discriminatory actions on a daily basis.

Cuba, a small Caribbean island, is –without fear of being mistaken- the only state in the region and one of the few in the world, in which women enjoy equal rights as men established by the Constitution.

Article 43 of the Magna Carta of the Republic of Cuba establishes that "Women and men have equal rights and responsibilities in the economic, political, cultural, labor, social, family or any other field."

This condition of equality began in 1959, when the revolutionary government that assumed power adopted a series of legislative, judicial and administrative measures that immediately guaranteed the fulfillment of the fundamental Human Rights of all the people, children, elderly alike and, in particular, women.  Currently, Cuban women, whether Afro-descendant or not, occupy wide spaces in the socio-economic life of the country. They represent 53,22 percent of the members of the National Assembly of People's Power, the country's highest legislative body; 48.4 percent of Council of State members; 60.5 percent of graduates of higher education and 67.2 percent of technicians and professionals in the country.

In essence, it is important that all women of African descent or not continue the battle for their rights and, surely, sooner rather than later, manage to emerge victorious.