Patriarchy is a pandemic which has been keeping women in lockdown since generations now. My grandmother was in a lockdown of misogyny but she flung the gates open and walked out to teach and never looked back. My mother was in a lockdown but she told us to be free everyday, instilled in us the importance of having an ambition, especially for a woman.
I was in a lockdown on nights I chose to keep quiet against the face of injustice but my whole life has been about breaking away from these shackles. I am exhausted and sometimes I give in for a few moments of unreal peace. Like when you’re so tired of swimming that you let yourself drown. Drowning in patriarchy, my will to survive against it, hits the hardest.
Patriarchy is intangible. It cannot be touched or seen. It can be felt in conversations, in unequal pay, in demands of chastity, in justification of abuse, in excuses.
Patriarchy is a book full of excuses which is handed over to children for them to read it like a manifesto. It creates a breeding ground for chain exploitation so that it goes on from one generation to another. It is even better read than all holy books put together.
Patriarchy is a pandemic which has been keeping women in lockdown since generations now but perseverance is something women have picked up as their weapon of choice in this war of reservation of rights. They have been handing it out across generations, from one woman to another, behind closed doors, away from the ears of society, in hushed voices, from one palm to another, important words written in crumpled paper, the antidote to patriarchy. It can keep us in lockdown forever in its attempt to prevent the revolution but who has ever stopped a revolution by further exploitation?
The kingdom will fall and patriarchy can do nothing for it is an old man on his deathbed, counting his sins and finding that his fingers are not enough to keep count. His days, like the most rooted structures will come to an end and it will fall the biggest fall because patriarchy is the pandemic and we have already found the antidote.