“When I was 8 years old, my parents paid a smuggler to take me across the Himalayas, a weekslong walk over the mountains from Tibet to India. It was a trek that tens of thousands of other Tibetans have taken since the Dalai Lama fled a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. My parents must have had their reasons to send me here; they must have had the best of intentions. But 18 years later, I still don't know why they did it. They are not political people. They are small farmers who raise barley and a few yak in a rural area not far from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. I have not seen them since I left...”. – Tsering Topgyal via The Associated Press. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

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)

In this February 7, 2014 file photo, Matt Figi hugs and tickles his once severely-ill seven year old daughter Charlotte, as they walk together inside a greenhouse for a special strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte's Web, which was named after the girl early in her treatment for crippling severe epilepsy, in the mountains west of Colorado Springs, Colo. Colorado is poised to award more than $8 million for medical marijuana research, a step toward addressing complaints that little is known about pot's medical potential. Among the research projects poised for approval on Wednesday, December 17, 2014, are one for pediatric epilepsy patients, and another for children with brain tumors. (Photo by Brennan Linsley/AP Photo)

People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus wait to walk across a traffic intersection in Osaka, western Japan, Thursday, November 26, 2020. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)

A flight deck crew prepares to launch a F18 Super Hornet from the deck of the USS Eisenhower off the coast of Virginia, December 10, 2015 in the Atlantic Ocean. US Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited the carrier with India's Minister of Defense Manohar Parrikar to demonstrate US Navy aircraft carrier flight operations. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Marina performs on stage at O2 Apollo Manchester on May 10, 2019 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Andrew Benge/Redferns)

An Amur tiger walks across a passageway after a news conference at the Philadelphia Zoo, Wednesday, May 7, 2014, in Philadelphia. The see-through mesh pathway called Big Cat Crossing is part of a national trend called animal rotation that zoos use to enrich the experience of both creatures and guests. (Photo by Matt Slocum/AP Photo)

Fikiri Kiponda, left, and Wilson Saro, right, carry a green turtle that was unintentionally caught in a fisherman's net, before releasing it back into the Watamu National Marine Park on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya Wednesday, September 22, 2021. A former accountant, Kiponda and the Local Ocean Conservation group rescue sea turtles that have been caught in fishermen's nets, and then release them back into the marine park or treat injured ones at a rescue center until they are fit. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)