International Women's Day 2016

Dear Girls, 

  Feminism is not here to dictate you. It’s not prescriptive, it’s not dogmatic. All we are here to do is to give you a choice. Gender equality is your issue too. Both men and woman should feel free to be strong.

We talk about successful women, famous women, hardworking women, women who built their own careers, women who stood up for themselves. But let us not forget about those women who history never mentioned, those who couldn’t make it far enough to build a career because they preferred their kids too. Women who, sadly, were never able to stand up for themselves because society would push them down every time they try to.

Let us not forget about the women who left so many things to raise a man, and hopefully a very strong woman. Women who suffered in silence, women who the world took all their energy and left them with nothing. Women who were forced to give up life to satisfy a man, and to give birth to another.

Women who slept next to us every night we got sick in, women who cried to the thought of us hurt, women who worried when you were five minutes late. Women who gave us our world by giving up theirs.

In honor of international women's day, I decided to shine light on some of the issues we currently face as women. It's very sad that we live in 2016 and yet these issues are prevalent.

 -Women are being beaten by their husbands, mistreated by their fathers, and granted no  basic rights by the law.

-I still live in a world where child marriages exist, and rapes and sexual harassment are abundant.

-I still live in a world where it is okay to kill a woman for the sake of honor killing.

-I still live in a world where girls don't have education granted as widely as it is for boys.

-I still live in a world where a man's opinion matters more than that of a woman solely because he happens to be a man. 

To our mothers, to uneducated women, to women who once suffered, to women who got burned with acid because they refused to marry the man that asked them to, women who got raped because this world we live in is a fucking tragedy, women who their family forced them to keep their mouth shut because it would “cause a scandal”, women who have nothing, women who in the eyes of everyone are weak, when in fact; they’re the strongest. 

This day is for you, and it will get better. This day is about reminding everyone that all these things are not okay. This day is about striving for equality of the sexes. 

Happy international women's day. 

Stay Strong and keep fighting my loves. 

Seema Sammy.