By Yusra Hasan:
Every single friend of mine drives, Its been years for some of them. But I can’t drive before 18. Accepted, you care about my safety or lack thereof. I get it.
But hey! Wait a minute, my 13 year old brother can! Just hold it right there? What sort of surreal ability does he exhibit which I clearly lack? Oh wait, i know, he’s a boy! Voila! There you go! Answered and justified.
We both are your children, you’re obliged to be equal. The unfairness of this little thing pinched me a bit too hard. Fine, hands down, made me cry. Hard. Well, its important to me. Bite me.
Now don’t get me wrong, My life is pretty much great, Alhamdulillah. It was just one of those times when I simply failed to comprehend a certain something. Yes, our Lord made us differently abled. We’re different. Agreed. But definitely not unequal. Its not a hierarchy. You’re not above me or below me, we’re all equal, just different. Is it that hard to figure?
This kind of male-chauvinistic mentality is drilled into us, and I’m not just talking about the boys, I’m talking about the girls too. I’ve been told that there are certain things I’ll be good at and certain things i wont be good at since before I could spell them. So much for being “supposedly” modern.
The moment I talk about driving a car, I’m laughed at by my cousins, and younger ones at that. They tell me how that’s not even possible. They find it funny that I’m passionate about something which is not made for me. We obviously don’t share mutual views on that. But can I really blame them? They’re kids, they believe what they’re told. And this ability to mould kids is misemployed to repeat a mistake in a similar fashion generation after generation, a bit of a hobby for our oh-so-sophisticated-human-society. Their judgement has nothing to do with my ability. It’s been programmed into their brains. They’re jammed with much of this rubbish. And even girls accept this! They accept this as the truth! I say what? I’m flabbergasted. Why fellow female comrades? why? How can you accept something like this? It’s so much so that, I myself, even before setting to drive ever, doubt my ability to be good at it. Why? Well, I’ve been told I’ll not be.
How sick is that? You’re playing with minds and it works because we are what we believe. Our society functions like this illegal factory producing flawed devices which in turn ruin the whole machine. The worst part is, in order to set something right, you need to recognize whats wrong. And that happy realization my friends, is far fetched at the moment. We don’t even know we’re wrong. Well most of us at least. Its depressing, really.
And it’s eating me at the moment. Now I’m not trying to act like a hardcore feminist. No! Is not judging abilities simply on the basis of gender too much to ask for? Is the little request to pass a verdict on my much-doubted driving skills after you’ve actually seen me drive too much to ask? I think otherwise.