Dear Men,
I'm writing this letter because I'm scared. I'm scared of becoming a woman. I guess I should be glad that I was even let to enter this world, thanks to the kindness of my parents. But sometimes, I'd rather they'd killed me.
Because it hurts to be a girl.
There was once this time when in our English Class, we were reading an extract of a Successful Woman Engineer's Autobiography where she'd become the first woman engineer to work in the Shop floor of a reputed Industry. And our English Sir had remarked that the extract shows the greatness of the Chairman of that company for "letting" her work on the Shop Floor.
And I'm writing this verbatim.
Where's the question of Equality when you're "letting" someone have what rightfully belongs to them?
I come from a nation where men and women alike pray to Goddesses. I come from a nation where there's 33% Reservation for women in all spheres of Public Sector.
But I also come from a nation which registers the highest number of rapes.
I come from a nation where Politicians speak of respecting women, and then don't treat their own wives and daughters as independent individuals.
When you speak of Women Empowerment, do you really mean it?
Because, let's accept it, most of you think of us the same way. As if we don't deserve to do what we're doing.
It hurts to have to know that life is not as simple as I'd thought it to be. It hurts to realize that I can't dress the way I want to, because it's dangerous. It hurts to realize that I can't be as free as any other boy, because it's dangerous. It hurts to realize that I 'm discriminated against, because I'm a girl.
Why, that same English Sir had even mocked the idea of Reservation for Women saying that nowadays everywhere we go, there are 50% of women.
The sad part is that in the very class he was teaching, there were only 8 girls in a class of 37. So where is the equality? Where are all the girls gone?
That is an answer you have to think about, because I'm only a student who'll be writing my SAT this month.
I'm not asking you to hunt down my misogynistic English Sir. Nor am I asking you to not vote the hypocritical Politicians who say something but mean the exact opposite of it.
I'm just asking you to think once again before you think less of a girl. Before you eve tease a girl walking by on the road. Before you pass a lewd comment on your female colleague. Before you insult your girl students. Before you curb the freedom of your wife. Before you dump your girlfriend and then bitch about her. Before you stop your sister or daughter from studying or going to work. Before you kill a fetus, just because it happens to have two X Chromosomes in it.
Please be the change that will make me, and three billion other girls live in a better and safer world.
After all, I'm not asking for much, am I?
