We celebrate love every single day of the year. We celebrate women loving on one another and supporting each other’s success. We celebrate sisterhood and sisterly love. We celebrate women loving themselves and caring for their well-being. We celebrate loving partnerships where people feel supported and valued. We love encouraging open dialogue about love with children and teens. Our work against gender-based violence is actually centered on this idea that where there is violence, there is no love and life without love loses all meaning. Basically, we love love and we asked some of our members to write about what it means to them.
“I can’t find the exact words to describe love, but I can always tell what is not love. Love is not yelling at and belittling someone until they feel unworthy and small. Love is not using someone’s weaknesses against them and guilting them into staying. Love is not a weapon. Love is not only reserved for romantic relationships. Love starts from inside each of us, an inner peace. If you are broken, love is surrounding yourself with warmth. The strongest, deepest forms of love often come from our sisters, our friends, and most importantly, ourselves. You are loved and worthy of love even if you’re not in a romantic relationship.”
-Aisha Azimi
“Love is mutual understanding and deep trust. If we love someone, we must allow them the space to breathe, the time to miss us. We can’t allow ourselves to become private investigators questioning every move of our partners, asking them where they are, who they’re with, what they are doing. Instead, we can say “are you tired?” “I’m here for you,” “take care of yourself.” Creating unnecessary rules and red lines won’t prevent anyone from being disloyal to us if they don’t respect us and there’s no trust in the relationship. They will only push our loved one farther apart.”
– Shabana Stanekzai
“It is often an act of love that starts life. And we’re fed, taken care of, nourished out of diapers and into walking, growing humans with love. We try to find work that we love. We infuse love in all aspects of our relationships with friends, family and lovers. Don’t we all love eating dishes, doing hobbies, participating in activities we absolutely love? What is life without love? They should be synonymous. But they are not. Sometimes we must know the opposite. We must experience and endure the antonyms to love. We must live and breathe the contrary to fully know the extraordinary of what should be ordinary. We have to relearn what we were born with innately and unlearn toxic versions of love. At its essence, love is the purity of who we are and the transformative power that lives long after we’re gone.”
-Pary Shuaib
“Love is when he appreciates the smallest thing I do for him and thanks me for it. Love is when he does his part at home and in raising our children. Love is when he respects and loves my family as his own. Love is when he proudly says my name in front of his friends. Love is when he encourages me to chase my dreams and have a successful career. Love is when he makes me feel like I am the most beautiful woman.”
– Wadia Samadi