OCTOBER 19, 2010  | MORE NEWS

The Ninth Asia Europe Peoples Forum (AEPF9) entitled ‘People’s Solidarity Against Poverty and for Sustainable Development: Challenging Unjust and Unequal Development, Building States of Citizens of Citizens’ held at Vientiane, Laos on 16 to 19 October.

Ms Rokeya Kabir was keynote speaker at the opening plenary on the main theme of AEPF9. At the beginning of her speech, she mentioned about Malala Yousafzai’s struggle which indicate what a society and world we are living in, the dynamics of ‘Arab Spring’, and the paradoxical economic growth in South Asia and around the world, such as India being a home of highest numbers of rich and highest numbers of poor as well. She referred persistent of very high numbers of maternal and child mortality, unacceptable level of child marriage, shameful level of illiteracy around the world and enslaved situation of women where they still bear the major burden of reproductive and productive work while suffering from malnutrition and all sort of discrimination.