By Afra Nazir:
“You are not supposed to go out at this time.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not safe.”
“But…”
“Don’t argue.”
This happens every time, every single time. We girls are not allowed to go out after dark, why? Because we won’t be safe outside. What they ultimately mean, is we will get assaulted..
We girls are taught what is fear, but are never taught how to fight back. We were considered to be weak and somewhere, many of us seem to have internalised that.
Assaults are blamed on us. Our character and our whole existence is questioned.
Our parents are perhaps just trying to protect us. And we live in a country where almost every girl will have face such things. So they are not to be blamed. But we are tired of all this now. Tired of being told how to dress, how to sit, when to talk and how to walk. We are not gaining anything by doing all this, instead we are losing our self- esteem.
I have never seen mothers questioning their sons when they come late. They neither tell them not to go out after it’s dark nor suffocate them with illogical rules. It’s we girls who are cornered.
But girls, enough of all this now, let us all start standing up for ourselves, achieving our dreams with our head high, no matter how many obstacles we have to face. Because no one will do it for us.