'No'.

This may be a heavier post, but the content that I am about to write, needs to be said. 

I am 16 years old. I am a daughter. I am a woman of India. I am a human being. Being any of these things does NOT take away my right to voice my opinions, be educated, dream or refute. Let me tell you a story. 

As a little girl, I was taught a golden word - 💫'no'💫. I'm sure you must be confused so let me put things into perspective. I was told to say 'no' to any stranger that offered me candy, any stranger that offered to take me home and any stranger that claimed they knew my parents. These rules left me confused, for why should I ever say 'no' to such acts of kindness?

I was told that 'no' meant they would leave me alone. The word was meant to be respected and adhered to. 

As a fourteen year old, opening the newspaper left me appalled. 'Rape' and 'assault' were written in bold fonts all over the pages. I saw pictures of girls with scarred faces, girls with reddened eyes, girls with quivering lips. 

They all said 'no'. 

But this was their fate. 

Saying no was probably what made their situation worse. Who knows?

Our generation today claims that they are more open-minded, unconventional, accepting. I am grateful to be a part of a generation where equality is being promoted, feminism is more prevalent, males support females and vice versa. 

But today I open Instagram to more news stating a 20 year old mother was assaulted, paraded and abused. And what caught my eye is that the people who beat her up in the capital of India, were women themselves. Yep, you heard right - women themselves. 

I realised that educating males to respect females is useless if a female can't respect and stand up for another female. So what is the real solution? 

Educate humans to respect humans. Educate humans to respect feelings. Educate humans to respect differences in opinions. 

I'm not just going to say 'no' to strangers that offer me candy or people who offer to take me home or strangers who claim to know my parents. 

I'm saying NO to the disrespect that people of different classes, religions and genders are subjected to. I'm saying NO to people objectifying, oppressing and silencing others. I'm saying NO to people not standing up for each other. 

I did exactly what I was taught. I said 'no'. Now I can only hope that it is respected. 

xoxo
aishu
05-02-2022

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 5, 2022 at 3:53 PM

    better than brilliant!!! this post is just incredible :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. SarithaFebruary 5, 2022 at 8:32 PM

    What a wonderful suggestion !!! "Educate humans to respect humans"

    ReplyDelete

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