Am I A Feminist??!!

I was quietly seating down, doing my hair when my sister came to see me alarmed and asked me: “Did you see the last post on ThisBurundianLife?” Then I go “NO! What is it about?” But when she started to talk about it, I told her to stop, to not spoil it for me, then I went on the website to read it myself.(Please read the post here). As I kept reading it, I started to boil inside because of so much anger and disappointment (p.s: I am not a person who usually gets angry so fast).

As some of you know by now, I am Burundian and although I know that many of you reading this are from England and Canada and therefore may not be concerned by this topic, I still feel like addressing this. After reading that post on ThisBurundianLife and reading all the comments, I felt horrified by how some men (and women too, unfortunately) still view marriage and women in general. In 2015, no men should perceive women as objects. It is sadly still the case in some societies and cultures and I am heartsick to see some people saying that it is okay to be seating home waiting on her husband, while he is outside having fun with his friends. You, as a woman, you are expected to do all the chores and take care of the kids (you had with that husband),as if that is your job. In the 21st century, women are educated and are able to have the same jobs, activities as men. Why is it then, that men can not do the chores that are assigned to be the women’s duties.

Growing up, I really had(and I still do) the chance of being raised by two parents who told me I (a girl) could do anything and who raised my sisters and my brother the same way. My brother was never told:” This is your sister’s duty, go seat in the living room with your father” and my sisters and I were never told: “You can not do that; it is not for girls”. My father was never (and is still not) ashamed to be seen in the kitcken cooking for his family; he even expresses so much pride being called the chef.

It breaks my heart to see that there are some women out there who believe in that lie they have been told and until today,,still feel like they are accomplished if they have a man in their life or if they are married and have kids. Well ,let me tell you something:

To all my girls reading this, you are just awesome the way you are. You need no man to show you love, you need no man to make you feel like you are a successful and beautiful woman. Today, we have the capability to do all things that man can do. We become pilots, surgeons, firefighters, astronauts, we can choose who to marry, and we also get paid as much as men or even more sometimes. So please, never let a man take you down or make you feel undesirable.

Honestly, seeing this today, makes me (and should in fact make you, my fellow sister) want to fight more for women rights. And sometimes people say:”But until when are you going to fight? For what more?” Well, until justice is done and all men in all societies (especially African and Arabic) stop considering women as a tool for procreation. To all the good men in the place, feel proud of yourself if you don’t think like people in the 1950s and you actually value your wife, sister, aunt, cousin as much as your brother, uncle, father. Help you fellow get there too. Tell them that “You don’t have to be anti-man to be a pro-woman”(Jane Galvin Lewis).

“I don’t wish women to have power over men,

but over themselves”

-Mary Shelley-

Have you ever been told there is something you can’t do because you are woman? Let me and other women know!

I.L.Duchesse