Being a woman…

Being a woman has always caused me to experience a wide range of emotions in different situations. The word “Empowering” never made me feel strong instead I always felt weak listening to it. This word is usually (in my opinion) connected with women's empowerment, but why do we need empowerment in the first place? It is our right to hold power and do what we like. Why is society granting us permission to do something? Whether it’s selecting on a girl’s education, a partner with whom she should marry, or merely going to a party, meeting a male friend or deciding on how to dress, etc. We are the owners of ourselves and our actions bearing the consequences too. Encouraging girls to study and educating them on the notion that they do not need to be empowered, that they have the right to pursue their dreams and live their lives as they wish is what is called right.

A parent mentoring a child is different since it is their responsibility to raise and guide their children in the right direction. But why should a girl/woman like me should take permission from my male friend, brother, or husband to decide on whether I should be working outside my house or inside. Even though I am an 18-year-old young lady with the legal authority to make her own decisions, I nevertheless respect my parents and ask them for their permission. But this doesn’t prevent me from recognizing myself as an individual.

Not throwing the concept of feminism but surely the concept of Egalitarian. Going back to the days, little ME asking my dad “Can I go for a night out?”

His reply “The world isn’t safe for you”. And the little me wondering ‘Is this world unsafe or the people living in it?’ The contrasting part of it is that my sibling went out. Guess who was the sibling? My Brother.

At this point, they were correct, but is this a viable solution? Is it right to keep girls at home during the night because the world outside isn’t safe for them. I agree that the world is not safe but why don’t we make our girls so independent that they don’t fear anything and can protect themselves in any situation and educate our sons to respect girls as well as keep themselves safe. Most of us have heard Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite quote “The day a woman can walk freely on the roads at night, that day we can say that India has achieved independence”. This remark was not only meant to be remembered and written in examinations but also to be put into action in order to make INDIA independent.

Another stereotypical example, Why is it necessary for a woman to cooperate and adjust after marriage? I’m not stating that a man should do all the adjustments since it would be equal injustice on the opposite side, but rather that both partners should figure things out and adjust together. Somewhere between 50–50 and 70–30, or vice versa. It’s all about looking at the world from a different vision. Perhaps the right one.

This world can’t even work an inch without a woman or man then why aren’t women given equal respect as men? Whether male or female, every gender should be given equal respect in all aspects. Recently I watched a movie and I would like to quote a line “When I was 16, all I cared about was smashing the patriarchy and burning it all down.” And I believe that giving equal rights, not only in legal papers but in reality, is what our country needs. These phrases “MEN” and “woMEN” were coined by a man who connected them with men but I would say a woman is an independent soul who doesn’t require any men to achieve what she wants.

A woman is expected to be fully clothed from head to toe, with no exposed skin. A woman is expected to be a housewife and work in kitchens. Even if she works, she is expected to balance both roles without her husband’s or family’s intervention. Rather than taking this decision together on whom to live with or keeping both parents with them, a woman is supposed to leave their homes and live with her in-laws. Why are these expectations kept from a woman? Instead of this, a woman should be expected to be independent. She should be expected to be happy and successful in her career as well as life. Both men and women should share equal responsibilities for their families and careers.

In today’s culture, women are the focus of jokes and memes for amusement, but men are not. Even if they are, the ratio is quite distant. We are the ones who must observe these little things in a different perception and rectify them in order to improve the social, political, and moral aspects of our society.

Another quote, probably from the same movie, in a game of cards “The king is worth more than the queen. Why?”