If you ask me who I am, it’s difficult to say. After my name and age, I would have nothing much to add! I recently read, though, that you are the average of the 5 people closest to you in life. Isn’t it beautiful how humans shape each other’s lives?
At the end of the day, we are a collage of every person we’ve known and every experience we’ve had. What this also means is that, when I look into myself, I find bits and pieces of my community within. I find many different vibrant pockets taking after all the women in my life that inspire me, and teach me to grow into my body, mind and soul. If you ask me, International Women’s Day is all about celebrating these many different pockets of colours the women in our life have gifted to us.
Two years later: The meaning of IWD
When I wrote this piece two years ago, it was titled, ‘International Women’s Day: I want to dream’. Two years later, I realise now that it was never about giving the day a new meaning, for international women’s day IS about dreaming. It is a product of the dreams of the women who came before us and continues to live because we dream.
The women of this world want to dream, one look around us is enough to prove the truth of this sentiment. We want to dream so desperately, but more often than not the world tries to extinguish the fire that burns within.
Women who fight, loudly and quietly
The past year, has seen much of what it means to be a woman. On one end of the world, Giselle Pelilcot takes a stance against the shame associated with being a victim of rape, she forces the world to confront its cruelty. On the other side, girls in Iraq can now ‘consent’ to marriage from as young as 9 years old.
Whether you pay attention or not, women all around the world battle and resist. They riot in their own ways, some by conforming and others by rebelling but always ALWAYS loud.
The courage I witness in women, the desire to dream, goes beyond those I read about. The drive to live and the strength to force the world to listen, I see in all the women in my life. In the wisdom our mothers and their mothers have gifted us, the consistent source of support our girl-friends are, and our sisters who are our best friends, I see something that moves and inspires me.
A reflection of women before me
When I think about it, most of the significant people in my life who cheer me on and inspire me, are women. In them I admire the most their kindness, intelligence and courage. Courage that looks like standing up to a rapist for the whole world to see. Courage that looks like calling out a misogynistic comment. Courage that looks like crying with a friend, courage that looks like a mother. Courage that moves and influences the world, courage that saves lives.
When I was young, people used to say I look like my mother. I didn’t see it then, but now everytime I glimpse pieces of her youth and spirit in me, I rejoice.
So if you ask me who I am, I still don’t know what to say but my name and age. What remains true though, is that I will think of the many shades of women in my life who make me who I am, and the warmth it leaves me with, is what international women’s day is all about.
This year, like every other one, I wish for a world where women dream freely. I just ask that this no longer be just a dream.
Comentários