By Lucy Emmanette Alieu
Women's rights have been distorted for too long; they have been treated like the outcasts in society. Vulnerable, yet the strongest; disadvantaged, yet they overcome; violated but, yet the most submissive.
There's no limitation to what women can do. There's no limitation to what anyone can do if they set their mind to do it.
'When a woman sets her heart to do something; it's done already.'
In the future, not too far from now, a significant change will revolve. Women will take the lead in everything; their strength is magnificent. Stereotypic boundaries are breaking, debunking old taboos.
Society once agreed that women are silent robots meant for the backyard, unrecognisable lower animals intended to use when needed, sex machines for redeeming lustful sexual desires. Women have been nothing but servants as society demanded.
Now, society battles with the heart of strong women gloriously standing up for a change. Their hearts say, "We will have the change we've strived for". With pain in the hearts of our mothers, they say, "We will protect our own, hands joined, we will defeat society".
Women's rights have been distorted for too long; they have been treated like the outcasts in society. Vulnerable, yet the strongest; disadvantaged, yet they overcome; violated but, yet the most submissive.
Issues like rape, sexual violence, domestic violence and every gender-based violence caused seem to go unnoticed.
"We have an enforcement crisis in our country," Barrister Fatmata Sourie, president of Legal Access through Women Yearning for Equality Rights, once said.
These are the many issues affecting women, and the State is not doing much about it. What are laws if they cannot protect women? When problems arise, mostly political, women suffer the most. The Police, a body responsible for protecting lives and properties, have been accused of violating the rights of women and girls caught up in the political saga. What has happened to human rights, or should I say women's right?
Women alone cannot defeat society. They need more than the State gives and more than men accept. We are not in competition with anyone! Some men think so, but equity is what we strive for.
All we want is to be seen as equals, treated right and handled with care. We deserve all the respect there is to give. Not that I'm sure of any, but sometimes, some women tend to rebel, or at least try to rebel only when they are being treated with force. Sometimes, I wonder, do women feed on pain, or are they immune to it? Impossibly, we tend to be patient, scared, and compassionately patient.
We don't just want to hear human right or women's rights; women should be treated right. Our mothers have dutifully served. At their worst treatment, they said, "I'll be patient for the blessings of my children". They suffered in silence with no one to hear the words of their voices.
I've heard men who say women are not united, and that women are the very cause of their mishaps. Tiana Alpha, the president of Women in the Media Sierra Leone, once said in an interview "Men are the very reasons for the mishaps among women. They ignite the fire of disputes knowing very well how women are stronger together.
There are so many voices countering the opinions and facts of women, discrediting the wounds of their hearts. We have allowed society to influence our decisions instead of designing these very decisions into who we really are…humans!
Choice is the most important right that has been taken from women; the power to make decisions. We have the right to make the decisions we want to, when and how we like.
“The idea of dependency is a major issue affecting most women, especially those from rural areas”
In female genital mutilation, child marriage, sexual violence and domestic violence, women have the right to make the decisions they want and the choice they want to make just like men. Women should not be sold to marriage. Consent must be sort before taking girls to be part of the Bondo society in the name of fulfilling tradition.
Women's voices should be heard! Consent must be sort in the area of sex. If tired, she demands help in the kitchen with chores. Women are not animals. We require equity to men, treated as humans equally created by God.
Women's right!, women's right!, women's right! is all we have heard about. How can women know about their rights if they are not educated? How can they identify that their rights have been violated if they are not communicated to about these rights, the dos and don'ts when these rights are violated? These are the rights most women are not aware of and how they are protected by law.
Society has its structures, giving preference to men. The idea of dependency is a major issue affecting most women, especially those from rural areas. When men are conscious that the life of a woman is centred on him, he takes advantage of this.
We need to break the glass ceiling.
My fellow women, as we revolve in change, education is an essential aspect of empowerment. Women of a higher calibre in society must reach out to the grass-roots women. Like others, they are most affected, and all they hear is, 'you are the women' which is so wrong.
For the change to be impactful, we need to break the barriers we have set before ourselves, the discrimination and segmentation.
The advocacy method is feeble; radio and television talks does not extend to all. Most women in authority don't want to bend to the low-class women; advocators must be truthful to themselves to effect change.
Sensitization on women's right comes before empowerment and equality.
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