Baraa Melhem plays on her sisters bike at her mothers house on February 2, 2012 in Qalandia, near Ramallah, West Bank. Baraa Melhem was held in captivity in a bathroom by her father for over nine years, and was finally rescued by Palestinian security forces after a family member notified police. (Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

“Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in Ukraine and Southern Russia. They inhabited sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins, and played an important role in the historical development of both Ukraine and Russia”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Кубанский казачий хор (Kuban Cossack chorus) - Розпрягайте, хлопцi, коней (Unharness The Horses, Guys!) – Ukrainian

Nopparat (R), a 24-year-old transgender, and a Buddhist monk (L) wait to speak to officers during an army draft held at a school in Bang Na in Bangkok April 3, 2015. Thai men over 21 must serve in the army. Those who volunteer serve six months, but others choose the annual lottery, which goes on for 10 days in recruitment centres around Thailand. Only those not considered physically capable of service, the mentally ill and those who have significantly altered their physical appearance, such as transgenders, are exempt. Picture taken April 3, 2015. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's six-acre sand and soil “facescape” stretches across the JFK Hockey Field on the north side of the Reflecting Pool along the National Mall October 1, 2014 in Washington, DC. Titled “Out of Many, One” and composed of 2,500 tons of sand, 800 tons of top soil and eight miles of string, the piece is the artist's interpreative blending of 30 different men's faces. Rodriguez-Gereda used high-precision global positioning satellites to place 10,000 wood pegs as waypoints for the giant face. The piece will be open to the public beginning October 4 and will eventually be tilled back into the earth. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Wednesday March 8 marks International Women's Day, with festivals, concerts and exhibitions among the numerous events planned around the world to celebrate the achievements of women in society. The annual event has been held since the early 1900s and traditionally promotes a different theme each year, with this year's edition calling on people to #BeBoldForChange and push for a more gender-inclusive working world. Reuters photographers have been speaking with women in a range of professions around the world about their experiences of gender inequality. Here: Yolaina Chavez Talavera, 31, a firefighter, poses for a photograph in front of a truck at a fire station in Managua, Nicaragua, February 22, 2017. (Photo by Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters)

A reveller wearing a bearskin costume poses during the Bearskin Parade in Comanesti, Romania, on December 30, 2022. More than two hundred “bears” and dozens of musicians, surrounded by police and tourists, took part in the end-of-the-year parade. Young men and women dressed in real bearskin and traditional costumes paraded to chase away the evil spirits of the coming year. In all regions of Romania similar events exist but it is in this historical region of Moldova that they are the most developed. Comanesti has become the centre, attracting more and more troupes of dancers every year. (Photo by Daniel Mihailescu/AFP Photo)

A soldier helps another with her ear protection at the Terningmoen Camp in Elverum, Norway on March 23, 2017. Soldiers demonstrate their skills and tactics during a contract drill as they train to become part of the world's first all-female special forces unit, the Jegertroppen or “hunter troops”. (Photo by Carolina Reid/NBC News)