Things are better than they have ever been, for women and men, but discrimination persists
I have two daughters, I have a mother, I am a woman. I know that the reality of living a full, free, safe life with opportunity and equality was not my mother’s, nor is it my reality. The question is, will it be a reality for my girls?
I know that what I have is far better than what women have ever had. I know that what I enjoy now is far greater than many around the world – including many women. I am fortunate to have education and health care, a choice about how to live my life, and I live that life in relative safety. For many women these are dreams.
A hundred years ago, most people, men and women, did not have access to these resources and rights. For both men and women, equal participation across economic and social divides, along with gender discrimination were the norm. How far we have come, and how many dreams of equality, rights and participation have already come true.
But I also know that the war is not won for women.
To know that this vast discrepancy is real and unjust, you don’t need to be a woman, have a daughter – or even try to pretend that it’s about doing your mother a favour. This is about sheer humanity, an aspiration for justice and a belief that we all do better when we treat everyone as human beings.
Sometimes, though, it is hard to appreciate the effect or the scale of the challenge. The harassment, abuse and discrimination is just so normalised that many women don’t even talk about it. That yank on your headscarf, being groped in public, being ignored in the office meeting, being told to be patient for the greater good, being told it was your fault because of the way you looked, to be sold into marriage, to be forced to have a baby with no health care. To linger on the many instances is draining, and many women prefer to ignore it all and carry on with their lives.
When many of these issues are raised they are slapped down as “moaning”, because women have never had it so good. It’s not moaning, it’s calling out oppression.
What women face every day, in their homes, on their streets, in the workplace, in health centres, in schools and universities (if they are allowed to even attend) all around the world, is a wholesale oppression. The war against women continues to rage. Terrorism is highlighted as the scourge of our time, every day in the news. But some describe what women face as a form of terrorism against half the world’s population perpetuated every day in their own homes.
That’s why we need women’s marches. That’s why the millions of people around the world are gathering together to mark a turning point for change. The criticism of marches is always – what do they achieve? Simple: solidarity, shared aspirations, a vast assertion that we do not accept the status quo and it must change. A heartening unity. Allies who support each other simply because it is the right thing to do. A statement about wrongdoing rather than an invisibility. It’s a flag in the face of those perpetuating discrimination that we know what you are doing and you’re not going to get away with it.
Things are better than they have been, but it is not even close to enough. This is not the end, but the point at which we redouble our efforts.
That’s the only way we can consolidate the future, not just for daughters, but for all of our children.
Shelina Janmohamed is the author of the books Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World and Love in a Headscarf
On Twitter: @loveinheadscarf