By Philip Thon Aleu

March 9, 2009 (BOR TOWN) – Organized groups of women marched to Bor Town Freedom Square on Sunday March 8 as expected to mark the International Women Day but few could express how their rights are  being violated. High rate of illiteracy in South Sudan, debits about 80% women, has always denied women opportunity to claim their rights.

Margaret Atim Oola, an Acholi working in Bor Town whose home is in Juba, acknowledges that educated ladies are better than their illiterate counterparts but traditional norms challenge this emancipation.

"Illiterate women are more harassed than those educated. But as a lady, each time I return home, I encounter some problems from in-laws who say my husband has made a mistake to allow me working in a distance place like Bor," she said.