When are we really free?
As women, when do we get our freedom? The other day, I went to the market right around the corner to buy a packet of milk. One little mistake I made was not changing into clothes deemed acceptable by society. It wasn’t the stares that bothered me — by now, one grows accustomed to them — but rather a woman who taunted me for wearing shorts and “spoiling the culture” of the area she lives in.
This was just a small instance from our everyday lives. It’s disheartening to admit, but it may take hundreds of years for women to be truly free. Our opinions are seldom taken seriously. We’re often made to feel guilty for having our own points of view, for not aligning with societal norms, for raising our voices against societal issues, and the list goes on. We are taught how we could’ve been nicer, how the framing of sentences could’ve been better, how we can put our point across indirectly, and so on. Meanwhile, the issue we want to talk about disappears in a jiffy.
I don’t know who a feminist is, nor do I claim to be one. But I do know for sure that I am all for equality — equality among all, irrespective of age, gender, caste, color, sexuality or race. The reason I am talking about issues related to women is because I have had firsthand experience with them.