Soliloquy of a Postage Stamp, # 71: The International Women's Year, 1975 : Fouad Kronfol

This week I continue the" thematic" approach with another presentation on the 1975 International Women's Year (IWY). Although near to fifty years have passed since that historic UN Event, and while much progress has been made all over the world, the issue of gender parity is still relevant in varying degrees in many places. Also in many countries we are seeing  a reversal of situations regarding women after much work and development, so that it is still an issue that requires more effort on many fronts. For IWY there was much philatelic materials issued by many countries, some of which I am showing this week.

The first item is a stamp issued by the Republic of Rwanda for IWY. The design is a reproduction of a Mary Cassatt oil painting entitled, "the Child's Bath" in which a mother is helping her child wash its feet in a basin.The painting was done in 1893 and the US artist was apparently inspired by Japanese woodblocks using her favourite theme of women and children.The IWY logo is in the left hand corner.

From the State of Bahrain we have this stamp issued for IWY in 1975. The design shows the portrait of the ruler Sheikh Issa bin Sulman Al-Khalifah , the IWY logo and a Bahraini woman in native dress kneeling and holding (planting?) a flower with a smiley face to it.

Here we have a  stamp issued by Paraguay for IWY. It shows the official logo quite prominently as well as the portrait of a woman's head within a square.

This is one of three stamps issued by Greece for IWY. I had shown it last week on a First Day Cover. The design shows Antigone's confrontation with Creon.

This is a First Day Cover from Hungary with the stamp for IWY. The design is a profile of a woman with her hair consisting of fruits and birds/doves representing Mother Nature possibly. The post mark is dated 14 August 1975 and is issued from Budapest. The cachet is simply the IWY official logo.

Here we have a very attractive FDC from Guyana. The four stamps  show the official IWY logo  with each stamp having a different man & woman design, while both are tied together with the = equal sign. Only the 50 cent stamp is different as it shows the design of a woman alone.The cachet has the official seal of the country and the cover was issued from Georgetown on 1 July 1975.

This FDC is from India. The IWY stamp  shows a pair of women's hands releasing two black and white doves over the official logo.The cachet is another simple reproduction of the IWY logo. The envelope was post marked on 16 February 1975 from  New Delhi.

From the Republic of Ireland we have another FDC with two stamps issued for IWY. Here again the design is simple as it shows two women's hands receiving a dove with a twig in its beak. There is no IWY logo on the stamps but it is prominent in the cachet. The post mark is dated 24 March 1975.

Shown here is the stamp from Thailand issued for IWY. The design is a stylized globe with the official IWY logo over it.The contrast of an orange background and a dark blue logo is quite striking.

From the Republic of Tunisia here is a stamp issued for IWY. The design is a drawing of a woman in native dress on her knees with a bowl of fruit (pomegrates?) under her left hand and holding a flower or plant stem in her right hand. Over her head is the official logo.

A different design is this stamp from the island of Trinidad and Tobago. It shows a balance with a man and a woman in each pan at an equal level, surrounded by a wreath. The logo is shown on the right side of the stamp.

Here is the stamp issued by the United States for IWY. As in many cases the US issues for most UN events have a different design or focus. Here the IWY official logo is not present (despite the fact that it was designed by a New Yorker) but is replaced by the female sign from which flies a white bird, next to which is the =equal sign.. Behind are five ovals likely representing the continents of the globe in blue.

In contrast with the above this stamp from the USSR  shows the globe and the official logo of IWY in front of which is a large red rose. 

From Venezuela we have this stamp issued for \IWY. It shows the official logo with four profiles of women of different color..black, white, mauve and red. The inscriptions are about the International Women's Year as well as the" Year of the Venezuelan Woman".

This is the stamp issued by Italy for the IWY on a First Day Cover. The stamp design shows a globe with four versions of the official logo in black, red, orange and white. The designer appears to be  E. Tangelli. The cachet has the same motif of a globe with four female faces of different ethnicities. The two post marks are dated 15 May 1975 and were issued from Rome's Central Post Office.

The final item this week is this FDC from Japan with the stamp issued for IWY. It shows the head of a woman on which is the official logo and some sun rays. The cachet also has the logo together with the face of a young woman.The post mark on the right mirrors the stamp, showing a female face, the logo and the sun rays and has three numerals : 50; 6; and 23. The other post mark is dated 23 June 1975 and was isssued from Osaka, Japan. The cover was airmailed  to a Mr. Irwin in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.