REUTERS, 09th MARCH, 2018-  In joyous celebrations and angry protests, women around the world came together in gatherings large and small on Thursday to mark International Women’s Day with a call for gender equality.

The day had extra resonance this year after widespread sexual abuse accusations in Hollywood sparked the #MeToo movement which feminists hope signals one of the most significant shifts toward equal rights in decades.

In Saudi Arabia, a group of women whooped and cheered as they marked International Women’s Day by exercising a recently acquired freedom: the right to go for a jog.

Wearing big smiles and traditional full-length robes adapted for sports, they pounded through sleepy alleys past puzzled shopkeepers in Jeddah’s historic district.

Women in the deeply conservative kingdom are hopeful of huge changes.