It’s been almost 216 years since calling for women’s rights happened, giving millions of women their voices back. Its cogent consequences left no one but to take notice of the magnificent changes women have embarked today. The simplest of which, that women have utterly evolved from bodily concerns to astounding mental capabilities that would – and no I'm not exaggerating- put any man to shame!
20 years in the making had me believing in women’s potentials, verbalized my ever so spoken refusal for ending up as another “desperate housewife” and translated my self-worth into irrefutable actions. Despite the fact that my futuristic aspirations are relentlessly changing, they all have one thing in common though, it’s that I don’t want to be held back for I need to explore my horizons, familiarize my capacities and achieve what I was meant to attain. But regardless of every career-oriented thought I've ever have, never have I once felt the superiority of men in anything. In fact, I consider the whole thing to be a balanced process to which men and women equally contribute, with no favors held or ranking records kept. For, this is how I see things, my brother gets to stay out as late as he wants, and I get bigger allowance, I get to have my girlfriends over for a dancing contest anytime while his friends’ visits are constantly restricted because “he has a sister”. Although there comes a time in every girl’s life when she wishes she was born a guy so as to enjoy all the privileges. But as tempting as that may sound, I’ve always had this pitiful feeling towards guys, for they are forced to take over a responsibility that is too heavy for one person to bear. While women simply work because they want to and raise their kids because they love to and not because they’re forcibly compelled to do so.
A quick run through my background was necessary for you to feel the irony in what I’m about to tell you…
Not so long ago, I was reluctantly staying in my car waiting for my friend to show up so we can make it to that meeting on time. But after 10 min of pure boredom, there was no sign of her, so I wrathfully called her for the millionth time to hurry things up, after all it’s only a meeting not an after party! On the other hand she being a total klutz lost her apartment keys and had to look for them in order for us to go which means more free time for me to kill! She lived in a well lit street, on top of a busy supermarket with sluggish but sometimes useful security guards. Thus there was no room for me to worry about anything especially that I’m used to locking myself in the car even before starting the engine. But ever since I hit that parking lights, I turned down the radio for I didn’t want to stir any focus and kept an eye on the side mirror to watch out for any “male predator” passing by the car.
See if it was anyone else but me, this probably would mean nothing, but that particular situation put me in a wrestle self-loathing state for days! I was personally astounded by my own fear for if it was of any indication, it’s that I’m a phony person, a hypocrite, someone who talks but doesn’t implement or rather calls for something that she dreads!
Why the overreaction? Because at the moment when I realized what I was doing, how I was panicking and counting the seconds till I can drive away, all I could think of was, God how weak am I?
I came to notice that I was busy fighting aged traditions and off beam beliefs only from the surface, I was crammed with achieving a certain image, a successful career woman who is independent and strong. But I couldn’t find that independency when I had doubts about myself and I definitely wasn’t strong enough when I was teetering at the sight of any “mustache” passing by. To be honest, I was beyond disappointed, for if I truly believed that men and women are equal, I could never have felt that way or even bothered to glimpse whoever is walking by, but it is all part of the frame, some reckless words that we just mumble out to discharge the residues of the male dominance era that up till that moment haven’t been fully eradicated.
Well, allow me these questions, is it enough for women to attend self-defense classes and carry around pepper sprays to feel safe? Is that the awaited salvation?
Which is more important, gaining our public rights where we’re entitled to exactly as any man is, or believing that we are not created to be dominated by men even on the emotional level?
When will our society understand that men are to provide security not intimidation and for women to stop being intimidated by men?And finally the same old question, on which basis can equality be defined, is it when a women feels she has all her rights handed down to her or is it when a man stops thinking of women as the weaker sex?! Because it seems that regardless of our social standards or academic achievements, we still have that si el sayed and Ameena plot planted tightly in our Egyptian roots.
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