Despite global fears of the spread of the coronavirus, women around the world took to the streets March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day. In the Middle East, from mask-clad Lebanese women calling for a feminist revolution on the streets of Beirut to protests by Sudanese women in front of the country’s Ministry of Justice, women have used the occasion to call for nondiscriminatory laws, greater representation in decision-making and strong measures to fight against domestic violence.

In Khartoum, Sudanese activists gathered in front of the Justice Ministry to voice their disappointment at the lack of progress on women’s issues, particularly after they have been at the forefront of the protests that toppled Omar al-Bashir last year.

“Nothing has been done to meet women’s demands [in Sudan],” Zeineb Badreddine, one of the activists, was quoted as saying by AFP. The activists’ demands include government measures to increase the age of marriage for girls to 18, get more women in the country’s ruling Sovereignty Council and abolish the system of guardianship that requires women to have a male guardian so they can travel abroad.

In Beirut, although the International Women’s Day march had been canceled due to precautions following the COVID-19 outbreak, a few hundred women — and men — walked through the streets of Beirut, calling for the fall of traditional patriarchal structures and improvement of personal status laws.