Flowers and women complement each other in a similar way: delicate yet strong
- A traditional way to celebrate International Women’s Day is sending flowers to the women in your life to express your support
Tasneem Hossain | Dhaka
Flowers- the word itself brings joy to all of us. It stirs our imaginations and creates a vivid visualization of bright beautiful flowers swaying in the breeze. You can almost smell their fragrance.
For centuries, flowers have been a powerful medium of communication, overflowing with hidden meanings and emotional symbolism. The tradition of employing flowers as symbols has its roots in ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures. Egyptians used floral symbolism in their art and religion, the Greeks and Romans associated flowers with their gods and goddesses.
The captivating power and timeless appeal of floral symbolism have also been skillfully interwoven as a literary device in literature for a long time. Authors from different periods and genres have enriched their stories using the exquisite beauty and varied meanings of flowers. The charm of flowers in Shakespeare’s romantic sonnets; the soulful verses of Emily Dickinson and euphoric description of Wordsworth have breezed through time and continues to inspire both readers and writers. Even now, floral symbolism plays a significant role in literature, art and in personal and public celebrations.
The art of giving specific meanings to flowers, known as floriography, is fascinating. This fascinating language allows meaningful interpretation through different flowers and their colours; the number of flowers and floral arrangements.
For example rose is the universal symbol of love and represents Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Depending on the colours, they have different meanings. Red roses symbolize passionate love and respect and yellow roses convey friendship and joy. Two roses symbolize mutual affection and love, six rose express infatuation.
While the practice of floriography may not be as widespread today as it was during the Victorian age, the language of flowers continues to captivate us and inspire creativity.
“A flower’s appeal is in its contradictions — so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect.” — Terri Guillemets
Flowers and women complement each other in a similar way: delicate yet strong.
A traditional way to celebrate International Women’s Day is sending flowers to the women in your life to express your support.
What flowers should we send?
Before we delve into this, let’s talk about International Women’s Day (IWD). It’s a global event, held on March 8th each year, to celebrate women’s social, economic, cultural and political achievements; to honour women and their contributions to the family, society and the world; create awareness and to take actions to dissolve gender disparity; focus on women’s rights where education, reproductive rights and violence and abuse against women are addressed.
International Women’s Day has its seed in the labour movement in the US in 1908. About 15,000 women walked through the streets in New York City demanding shorter working hours, better wages and their right to vote. Later women in Soviet Russia brought out processions demanding their rights to vote and this demand was accepted in 1917. It was later recognised as an annual event on March 8, 1975 by the United Nations.
Gender equality is the greatest human rights challenge and can only be addressed by empowering women. In order to bring in change and accelerate the transition towards a healthier, safer, and more equal world, investment in women sectors must become a top priority.
According to UN website data
- Additional $360 billion is needed per year to achieve gender equality.
- Closing gender gaps in employment could boost GDP per capita by 20 per cent.
- 300 million jobs created by 2030 by investing in care services
- Closing gaps in care and expanding services with decent jobs could spark almost 300 million jobs by 2035.
Thus, it’s necessary for governments to prioritize gender-responsive financing and increase public spending on essential services and social protection for women; develop and implement fair and transparent policies to protect women’s rights and ensure that women’s voices are heard in decision-making; a digital revolution to enact policies that bridge the digital gender gap; implement strict laws for zero tolerance for violence against women; international intervention in conflict related sexual violence; plan and mitigate sufferings for women in climate crisis.
Despite the challenges faced by women and girls, they are playing dominant roles in their contributions to the society, helping build a more sustainable future for all.
Yet, their efforts are undermined due to socio-cultural norms limiting their full participation in leadership and key decision-making processes.
Ending all forms of discrimination, against women and girls, is their basic human right. Their voices need to be heard without fear, without repression. Women, in all their diversities, need to be celebrated.
Every year, the UN comes up with a theme for the day. The IWD theme for 2025 is “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” In order to achieve a future where all people are treated equally, this year’s theme looks for actions to provide equal rights, power, and opportunities for women.
Sadly, there are innumerable barriers to gender equality.
Though, we have achieved a little of some of the goals, it requires a lot to be done. At the current rate of progress, according to data from the World Economic Forum, it will not be until 2158, to reach full gender equality.
To speed up the progress, globally, we need to efficiently and effectively accelerate our actions in addressing the barriers faced by women.
The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2025 is #AccelerateAction
#AccelerateAction calls for worldwide action to find out practical plans, policies, resources and activities for women’s advancement worldwide.
Though, governments have a greater role to play in advancing gender equality and women’s rights, we all have responsibilities in accelerating the process.
A collective effort by all who care about human rights will help women to break the glass ceiling.
Be a part of the movement. Send a flower to express solidarity to the women in your life.
Though, IWD was observed since the early 1900s in America and Europe, it wasn’t until March 8, 1946, that flowers began to be closely associated with this day.
It originated in Italy. The first Women’s Day in Italy was celebrated in 1922, but it took on a particular meaning in 1945, when the Women’s Union in Italy regained rights to vote lost under Mussolini’s Fascist regime. Three members of the Unione Donne Italiane (a women’s rights organization) nominated the Mimosa flower as a symbol to represent IWD. Despite having delicate flowers, it grows even in harshest conditions just like women. It was picked as a symbol of strength, sensitivity, and sensibility.
Since then, the tradition of giving flowers on this day to express solidarity and honour women has continued. Although the mimosa flower has a special significance, it’s not the only flower given. It’s estimated that flower shops sell more than 150,000 roses on this day in shops across Russia alone.
A combination of purple, green and white colour symbolizes the equality of women which originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union in the UK in 1908. Green symbolizes hope and white purity. There’s a new introduction of yellow colour representing a ‘new dawn’. It’s commonly used to signify a second wave of feminism. Thus purple with green represents traditional feminism, purple with yellow represents progressive contemporary feminism. Pink, purple, green and white, and green are the colors that are connected to the IWD celebration theme every year.
As the color theme for the day is associated with purple signifying justice and dignity, giving purple roses and pink roses are an excellent choice to express admiration to the women in your life.
You can also send other flowers like carnations, lotus, lilies, chrysanthemums or tulips-each with their particular symbols to show your appreciation and solidarity.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, let us reaffirm our commitment to create a more equitable and inclusive society for women around the globe; celebrate women’s achievements; take action for equality, invest in their welfare and inspire inclusion.
Show your support by sending flowers to the special women in your life.
Let’s hold hands together to Accelerate Action for gender equality.
Instagram post of the writer posted by IWD
Facebook post of the writer posted by IWD
References:
- UN Women, International Women’s Day
- International Women’s Day, Let’s Inspire Inclusion
- Winfrey, Oprah, Darcey Flowers, The Story Behind the International Women’s Day Flowers
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Tasneem Hossain is a multilingual poet, columnist, op-ed and fiction writer, educator, translator, and training consultant. She writes poems in English, Urdu, and Bengali. As an op-ed writer, she has authored over 130 articles. Her articles deal with day to day life events and deals with personal development issues; and creates awareness about social and human rights issues. Several of her articles and poems are utilized as teaching material in universities and academies across various countries; some have been referenced in university research papers by academics. She is author of three poetry collections—Grass in Green, The Pearl Necklace, and Floating Feather and a book of articles ‘Split and Splice’, she also leads an international poetry project and group called Life in Lyrics. Additionally, four more books are currently in progress. She served as a faculty member of Business English at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology. Currently, she is the director of the prominent human resource development organizations, Continuing Education Centre (Bangladesh), and Cansaz Services and Distribution LLC (Canada). With 27 years of experience, she is a highly regarded Business English Language and Communication Management trainer.
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