Written by MN*
Today is the International Women’s Day and I am thinking about my uncle’s first wife who was divorced on her wedding night for not being a virgin. She was raped at the age of twelve, but she kept it a secret because she was scared for her life due to the prevalence of honor-killings in Afghanistan. He remarried. She never found happiness.
I am thinking about my mother who was denied an education and married at the age of fourteen and has lived a life of hardship.
I am thinking about millions of girls around the world who are denied their human rights because of traditions that dictate that a woman’s life is less worthy than a man’s.
I am thinking about other girls who like me have to carry the burden of their families’ and culture’s honors, and girls who witnessed many kinds of violence before experiencing joy and freedom.
I saw my cousin beating his wife while she was tied to a tree. She had gone to visit her mother without his permission.
My eighth-grade classmate committed suicide by setting herself on fire because her mother-in-law was against her education.
My best friend was forced to marry her first cousin when she was only fifteen. She became a widow with two children when she was seventeen.
But it is enough. I will not teach my daughters that they are second class and they have to serve their husbands and become good housewives. I will teach my daughters about their worth and help them become confident and independent.
I will tell my daughters that they are not anyone’s property and they are owners of their bodies and lives.
I will also teach my sons to respect women and girls. I will teach them that violence does not define their masculinity and it does not prove their manhood.
Our society will improve only when love, kindness, and respect replace the harmful traditions that have silenced women for centuries.
For me, today is about fighting for justice, not receiving flowers or headscarves as gifts. For me, today is about raising the voices of women everywhere so we all become braver, stronger, and more free.
*Pseudonym used for the protection of the author and the other women mentioned in this piece.