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Media Statement during the International Women’s Day celebration
by Ean Yong Hian Wah  
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(Petaling Jaya, Thursday) : Women's Day is a day to commemorate women's struggle for change, to celebrate the progress, which has been made towards improvement of quality of life of women.

As we celebrate the Women’s Day, we acknowledge that we still have a long way to go to achieve gender equality in our society.

Our society is not free until our women are free. Our society is not truly democratic unless our women are able to fully participate in the democracy at every level - in government, parliament, state assembly, local government, and business, at work and indeed in the home.

The safety of women and rape are issues that remain a challenge in our society. We urge the police to put extra effort to fight against crime and to reduce the fear of crime among Malaysians.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among Malaysian women. A woman in Malaysia has a 1 in 19 chance of getting breast cancer in her lifetime.

The government should concerns and provides services to protect women from breast cancer and available medical check-up free of charge in all public hospitals. It is crucial is for us go out and alert women to the danger of this disease.

Finally, I wish all the Malaysian women a Happy Women’s Day!

(8/3/2007)