Excellencies, dear guests, 

Thank you all for making time to celebrate International Women’s Day together. It is an important day, to celebrate achievements, and to reflect on the road ahead to achieving gender equality.

We are grateful to present to you the Resilience photo exhibition in cooperation with the Dutch foundation World Press Photo and Danish Cultural Center. 

The great selection of pictures you will see, illustrates women and girls from all over the world. Women and girls who face difficult challenges, sometimes even violence. Yet, instead of focusing on their challenges, the pictures show their personality, their strength and their resilience.

They are all beautiful pictures. But what makes a picture iconic? That is one of the questions for reflection you will come across today as you walk around the exhibition. 

For me, one picture in particular has not left my mind for some time. I was reminded of it again two weeks ago while watching the documentary ’20 days in Mariupol’ at the Polish Embassy, to mark two years since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

The picture, which was taken by Evgeniy Maloletka and awarded Photo of the Year 2023 by World Press Photo, portrays the 32-year-old Iryna Kalinina, an injured pregnant woman. The photograph shows her being carried from a maternity hospital that was damaged during a Russian airstrike in Mariupol. Half an hour after her baby Miron, which means ‘peace’, was stillborn, Iryna herself passed away. The picture painfully captures the disproportionate impact of war on women and girls. 

War is one of the greatest challenges we can face. And in that challenge, many women demonstrate their perseverance, braveness and resilience. A UN Women press release two weeks ago stated that: “Amidst the unprecedented challenges of war, women have become the backbone of Ukraine’s economy. Currently, one out of every two businesses in the country is founded by a woman. In 2023 alone, Ukrainian women led the creation of over 10,000 new companies.” And more than 62,000 Ukrainian women are serving in the military.

Like these women, all pictures you will see in the exhibition celebrate women as agents of change. 

You will for example see swimming instructor Siti (24) who helps a young woman to learn how to swim and perform rescues. Traditionally, girls in the Zanzibar Archipelago have been discouraged from learning how to swim, largely due to the absence of modest swimwear.

You will also see Doan and Nguyen, who have been together for three years, waking up at their home in Vietnam. In this picture, the photographer aimed to capture the casual daily activities of LGBTQIA+ couples to evoke feelings of familiarity and to challenge the belief that same-sex attraction is a mental health condition. 

On the road ahead towards a gender equal world, structural barriers need to be overcome. Addressing their root causes – such as gender stereotypes – is something that we must do everywhere. Also at home, in The Netherlands, where to this day - a gender pay gap still exists. And where labour participation for women is one of the highest in the world, but women – on average – still work 10 hours less per week than men, contributing to gender inequality.

We need to support women and organizations who are leading the charge to make a change. We need to support them by speaking out. And we need to support them financially. As this year’s theme states: we must invest in women to accelerate progress towards gender equality.

This exhibition tells the story of resilient women, who inspire change. Celebrating them and supporting them is what International Women’s Day is all about.

I hope you will enjoy the Resilience photo exhibition and that it serves as inspiration to further work towards a gender equal society. 

各位阁下，各位来宾，

非常感谢百忙之中腾出时间跟我们一起庆祝国际妇女节。妇女节是一个很重要的节日，是一个庆祝成就的日子，也是一个思考如何实现性别平等的日子。

有机会与荷兰世界摄影基金会和丹麦文化中心携手举办韧性摄影展览会，不胜感激。

为本次展览精选的照片展现了世界各地的女性和女孩。她们面临着艰难的挑战，有时候甚至是暴力。然而，这些照片并非聚焦于她们面临的挑战，而是展现她们的个性，她们的力量和韧性。

每一张照片都很漂亮。不过具体是什么让一张照片被视为标志性照片？这就是各位今天参观展览时可以思考的一个问题。

对我来讲，有一张照片一直在我脑海里挥之不去。两个星期前，为了纪念俄罗斯大规模入侵乌克兰两周年，波兰大使馆播放了“在马里乌波尔的二十天”这个纪录片，我在观看这个纪录片的时候又想起这张照片。

这张照片是由乌克兰战地摄影师叶夫根尼·马列卡拍的，获得2023年世界新闻摄影比赛年度照片奖，展现的是32岁的伊琳娜·卡莉尼娜 ，一位受伤的孕妇。照片中，她被从一家在俄罗斯空袭中受损的妇产医院中抬出。伊琳娜的孩子取名为Miron，和平的意思，孩子胎死腹中半个小时后伊琳娜也不幸遇难。这张照片痛苦地记录了战争对女性和女孩造成的巨大影响。

战争是我们面临的最大挑战之一。而在这种挑战中不少女士展现了她们的毅力、勇气和韧性。联合国妇女署两个星期前所发布的新闻稿称：在战争带来前所未有的挑战中，女性已成为乌克兰经济的骨干。目前，在乌克兰, 50%的新公司是由女性创办的。仅在2023年，乌克兰女性就创建了一万多家新公司。而且超过六万两千名乌克兰女性正在效力军队。

跟刚刚所说的女性一样，展览中的照片把女性描绘成变革的推动者。

比如你将在展览中看到，24岁的游泳教练Siti，她在教一位年轻的女性学习游泳和游泳救援。传统上，因为没有保守的泳装，桑给巴尔群岛的女孩不被鼓励学游泳。

另外，你也会在展览中看到，已经在一起三年的尹先生和阮先生在他们越南的家中醒来。在这组作品中，摄影师通过捕捉LGBTQIA+伴侣间休闲的日常点滴来唤起人们的熟悉感和同理心，并挑战了“同性恋是精神疾病”的观点。

在通往性别平等世界的道路上，需要克服结构性障碍。解决这些问题的根源-比如性别刻板印象-是我们在任何地方都必须做的事情。荷兰也不例外，荷兰仍然存在性别收入差别的问题，另外虽然荷兰属于女性劳动参与率最高的国家之一，但荷兰女性每周的平均工作时间仍比男性少十个小时，这也是造成性别不平等的原因之一。

我们需要支持推动变革的女性和机构，我们通过大声疾呼支持她们，也需要在经济上面支持她们。就像今年的主题所说：投资于妇女：加速进步。

这次展览讲的是那些鼓舞人心的女性变革故事。庆祝和支持她们正是国际妇女节的意义所在。

我希望你们会喜欢 "韧性 "摄影展，也希望它能激励我们进一步努力实现性别平等社会。