Proud to be A Woman

Growing up in a single child household, I was always the peak of attention of both my parents, both in a positive and negative way. My parents loved me but were overly worried about my safety. My parents loved me but my extended family kept nudging them about how I should be raised like a man to be better in the society. The thought of being raised like a man has always made me cringe. As sexist as it sounded, this was a day-to-day conversation in every household. According to my father, specifically, he wanted me to be as responsible as a man and very often found himself in an avert position of dreading himself that I, one day, would be married off. I never really understood why this was such a necessity. Why couldn’t I be a woman and be brought up like one? That’s when I realized that to them, being brought up as a woman meant to cook, manage the household and take care of the children. So, I got their point, they wanted me to be independent - emotionally, financially and in every other way possible. After so many years of gender equality movement, we are back at the image of independence being equaled to men.

But as I grow up, I realize that I am proud of being a woman. I don’t think of myself as better or worse than men but I just want to be unapologetic as a woman. I can be strong and efficient. I can take care of the household (even though maintaining household should not be gender biased) and my work. I can take care of children and serve my passion at the same time. I don’t think, as a woman, should stop me from being who I am or who I want to be. Every woman should look at the positive, rather than the negative. We have to deal with too much stuff, from home or the world outside but that’s what makes us unique. We have the capability to turn the tables and be who we are. We have the strength to fight for what we want. We should never be sad for getting lesser trips than men or feeling more chained than them - rather we should focus on how to find happiness with what we have and who we are. We should help others to accept us and believe in us and it all starts from right now, today. Take

a moment, breath and enjoy being a woman - without any fear, without feeling like a burden and definitely, without feeling guilty of being a woman.

~Raisa Rahman

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Modern Parenting?

In a steadfast generation, good parenting is a necessary. Children are like fresh mud, they can be molded in many ways. Many of our societal problems start from a very early age, be it drug abuse or eve teasing. These things are to be taught from home but parents often emphasize more on educating the children by the books than focus on educating them as a human being. The importance of parenting is often misunderstood as a sort of guidance to only being successful in life but in reality, parenting works as a pillar for children to help them build perspective and personality. 

We have had long discussions and debates about gender equality and feminism. The ideas are the same without different explanation but in every way, the argument poses the same verdict and that is, everyone should treat everyone else equally. This lesson is not to be learned from an article or from a book but from home. Both boys and girls should be taught from when they are young to respect all genders and treat them equally. This is an important lesson to evaluate their future perspective. The idea of equality when engraved into children will help them build better ethics and morals. I believe that in this way we can stop or at least decrease sexual abuse, rapes, harassment and much more. 

From early on, parents should teach their girls to fight for their rights and protest when they are discriminated or when they feel abused or neglected. Parents should also teach girls to defend themselves emotionally and physically as well as help others to do the same. These important lessons can help the girl throughout her life and she wouldn’t feel like a burden to anyone and be more independent and responsible.

These lessons are thought to be crucial for girls and the parenting for modern parents are changing but at the same time, these lessons apply to boys as well. Boys are to be taught about gender equality, respect for all genders, consent, behavior etc. When boys are taught attitude of such, girls would feel safer around them. When you teach boys to be responsible and teach them to know what to do and what not to do, the rate for abuses will decrease. 

As said previously, the lessons start from home. It’s the baby step towards a better perspective which makes the world a better place to live in. We need to start from now to give our future generations a healthier mentality and society to live in.

~ Raisa Rahman

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