MY AWAKENING TO FEMINISM

 

MY AWAKENING TO FEMINISM

Don’t speak loud. Don’t wear jeans. Don’t go out. Don’t speak much. Don’t be a feminist:

Don’t: Don’t: Don’t…..

Have you ever counted how many “don'ts” you have to listen or avoid till now, especially if you are a girl. I have a nuclear family where I have never faced any kind of judgement of being a girl but whenever I meet with my extended family tree, I always feel that I am lucky enough to be nurtured and raised to be career driven by my parents. My parents look beyond their upbringing and without any differentiation, they raised me to stand on my feet. One day my maternal aunt said, “Don’t do feminism-veminism here.” She tries to teach me a girl should be polite and always followed the men of the family. But my issue is I never say “Yes” I always ask “why”. So am I a feminist? To get the answer first I need to evaluate why this feminism is such a taboo that people use this word like a slang sometime. A girl believes in feminism, is either over smart or she cannot put up with the society’s moral values. As growing up in my family I have never seen anyone treating men superior to a women. I have always seen my mother to take all the decisions of our family. In my family women are always involve in decision-making process. In teenage years I had a friend whose father is very conservative. She told me that her father did not give her permission to wear jeans, he told her it's not right to wear jeans for a girl and it's a Western culture she should not adapt. But my parents always support me and my sister’s decisions and never stops us from what we want to do or wear. So as a child I never have understood the concept of differentiation between boys and girls. However, after growing up the patriarchy hits me hard. In TV and social media everywhere we hear about “feminism”. In every industry, women are being paid less than men. Even Bollywood actress are getting less money that an actor. I think, Men can do anything but women can do more. For me Feminism means equality. Equality for both men and women. Both should be equally paid, have equal opportunities, and education for every child specially girls as an educated society starts from a educated women. A feminist can be “a man” too, who believes in equality. Even  American ex-president Barak Obama supports feminism and declared himself a feminist. However, nowadays women are giving men tough competition in every industry but still they don’t have that much freedom. A feminist activist that I look up to is Emma Watson who is an outspoken feminist and she has promoted education for girls, travelling to Bangladesh and Zambia to do so. In July 2014, she was appointed a UN Women Goodwill ambassador.

As a women it's very important to be financially independent and not depend on anyone. If asking for equal opportunities and working side by side with men means am a feminist. Yes maybe be I am, and proud to be one.

                                                             (Image By- Google)