In one episode of Young Sheldon, Sheldon asked the librarian what her religion was because he was learning about different religions in order to find the one he liked better. She said her religion teaches that when people die they go their own planets but women have to go to their husband's planet, except her because she's single.
Happy International Women's Day, Sewuese ❤️
In all 23 years of my life, I have battled with people's different beliefs in relation to love, respect and ambitions. It's been a tough and conflicting battle on what to belief as right or not. I have made my own assumptions and research based on what I've been taught intentionally and I believe at this point, I have the right standing.
The argument about God's intention when he took a rib out of man to create woman is one that can put one's brain in a turmoil. Did God mean for a woman to only be a helpmate and not have her own identity? Did he instruct Adam to be fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth by himself?
In the past, our great-grandmothers and their mothers before them didn't really set a standard for achievement, maybe they did but couldn't fight enough to be recorded. We read current affairs and learnt all the names of the fallen heroes who fought for our freedom as a country; Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, Herbert Macaulay, Dr. Clement Isong, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and a host of other ‘men’. Even if there were a few women in the history, I don't know them. I'll check Google afterwards but that's my point, I know the abovementioned heroes offhand but not one woman. Today, I can mention more than 20 women doing great things, both in large and small scale. Late Dora Akunyuli was a force before her death, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala remains a national and global sensation as she continues to break boundaries, Aisha Yesufu; a model of strength and doggedness, Oby Ezekwesili, Omotola Jalade Ekehinde, Tonto Dikeh, among other influential women in the entertainment industry, Elizabeth Naze, my mummy who has raised 5 beautiful girls to be strong, independent, goal oriented.
Happy International Women's Day to the women of this rebirth. There's no better time to exist than now.
- You, the young woman who refuses to sit with your ideas in class but raise your hands high to answer questions and share your knowledge on your favourite topic.
- You, the young woman who has refused to be insulted for depending on your male friend to buy you pretty dresses, bags, shoes and hairs therefore having a means of livelihood.
- The unmarried woman in her 40's well aware of her self worth, who did everything right in her prime but didn't settle for just anyone because society put a tag on her to get married before 30.
- The uneducated woman selling goods at the market under the sun and in the rain to send her lovely children to school because she knows the taste of deprivation.
- The grandma who gives equal errands to both grandson and granddaughter because they're both little children and should not be weighed according to muscles or feminity.
Here's to the strong women who are well aware of their rights and stand on them, here's to the women who recognise that feminism does not mean fighting to be a man but human in every sense of the word. Here's to young women of this rebirth who are opening their mouths to speak against the beginning stages of stigmatisation.
All women; black or white, slim or fat, wealthy or struggling, married or unmarried, physically challenged or healthy, deserve a right to speak and be heard. We all deserve a right to be ambitious in our various fields of study, homes, in our countries and abroad.
Let's also raise a toast to the women who have found their soulmates, their partners who encourage them to be better and do better.
Photo: an ode written by Kode Flora
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