INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is a celebration for every female to come together and fight for their rights and gender equality.

The Lancashire Telegraph hosted a special event at the Bangor Community Centre on Friday in Blackburn to bring inspiring women of Lancashire together to celebrate female empowerment.

On the panel to discuss why it was important to talk about issues women face, was Saima Ashraf, the first registered blind auditor in the UK, from Blackburn.

Miss Ashraf spoke about how she overcame the negativity surrounding disability in women and succeeded in achieving a career that nobody thought she could do.

She said: “Now I am a senior auditor and it is nice when people recognise me for my profession and not my disability.

“We are moving away from labels, because I’m tired of being seen as just the blind auditor, I’m more than that.”

The Wish Centre’s Shaheda Rashid spoke about the labels women find themselves being given, as she talked about how TWC helps women going through abuse to find their own way out.

Miss Rashid said: “They have not always been victims, but they find themselves in those scenarios.

“Someone has chipped away at their confidence, a woman puts her trust in that relationship, and feels she can’t cope on her own.

“If we just treat her like a victim, then we have disempowered her.

“We ask her what she wants to do, we believe in her, so that she will start to believe in herself.”

Traditionally held on March 8, IWD dates back to 1908 when the Socialist Party of America celebrated 15,000 women who protested over long hours, low pay and voting rights in New York City.

Since then, it day has spread around the world, and a website has officially been set up to help keep the day in focus.

This year’s theme is Each for Equal, looking at how women can gain equal pay with their male counterparts.

Beth Field, from the Sisterhood Is Really Good group, and 13 artists created work to celebrate the day.

One of the designs included was of two women holding hands, with a rose in the middle and a Celtic pattern symbolising sisterhood, drawn by illustrator Lucie Cooke.

Mrs Field said: “For our project we used IWD as an opportunity to raise money for an important charity in our area, to address women’s issues through our art, but also to show an example of ‘sisterhood’.

“Every woman needs other women and we have tried to celebrate that.”

Fashion designer Celine Zara Constantinides, who made a skirt which Princess Beatrice wore, was also at the event, as well as Massarat Rashid with her Sisterhood group.

Empowering women were Sarah Subhani from Inspire Blackburn, Atiya Shah who runs her own Islamic Stationery line, baker Hasina Bangi, life coach Madeeha Iftikhar, Gariella Marsden, and Claire Plowes among others.

Former nurse turned baker Michelle Davie made purple IWD themed cupcakes to go along with delicious brownies.