My Roots of Feminism
After watching Naomi Wolf’s interview on Aljazeera, which was broadcasted in 2015, it was interesting to observe how feminism is often attributed to the West. Many Western countries have indeed done a good job of institutionalizing feminism in so many different ways to make sure women attain liberty and are recognized as humans with full human rights above and beyond everything else. However, the idea, sentiments, emotions, urges, and longing for freedom is innate in every woman irrespective of how, where, and when feminism was institutionalized or “founded”. I am partially educated in the West and I feel very strongly for women’s rights and their liberty. If I speak about women’s rights especially from within Western discourse, I will undoubtedly be perceived as a product of the West. I appreciate and am whole-heartedly grateful for the opportunities I got in the West and the wonderful people I met who added to who I am today, but there is more to my story. My feminist training started as soon as I started making sense of things around me. My trainer/guide was my mother – a woman who is not educated; who has not seen the world; who has hardly seen one or two movies in her entire life; has not read books, magazines, tabloids, simply nothing. But she always had the urge and the vision of a feminist. She made sure I get as much education as possible; travel all over the world; engage with people of all kinds; be sympathetic and understanding of people and their situations; and above all connect with them with no prejudices. Here I am with two post-graduate degrees and a third soon to be obtained at the PhD level. I travelled to eighteen different countries and engaged with people from all over the world. I enjoyed and tackled the challenges of being independent and doing things my way to the fullest. I enjoy connecting and being a good listener to people from different backgrounds. I feel humbled to find more people connect and open up to me.
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