A Cup of Tea To Revolution:

Women’s Rights:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal”.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a leader of the Women’s Rights Movement in the late 1800s. Days before the first Women’s Rights Convention took place in the U.S. in 1848, Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and other attendees sat having a cup of tea at Stanton’s home in Seneca Falls, N.Y. and drafted the Declaration of Sentiments in which she wrote how women were not allowed to vote, married women had no property rights, husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent that they can do whatever they want. Child Custody Law and divorce were in favor of men leaving women without a right. Women had to pay for the property taxes. Less pay was given to women than men. Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law. They did not have the right to study in schools, colleges, and universities. Women were made totally dependent on men by all means.

All these points truly described how women were kept with no power.

above: Just some of the women who shaped the movement for gender equality following the Seneca Falls Convention

(At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, a woman’s rights convention—the first ever held in the United States)

Discrimination:
To this date, women are objectified in public, workplaces, and everywhere in the world. Women are the only gender that is bearing a tag of discrimination in society. One of the acts includes acid violence. It is stated by many acid attack survivors that the most popular reason for men to throw acid is that their self-esteem or ego was hurt and in revenge, they destroy one’s life. To make women feel less worthy of acceptance by society is what these attackers want. But laws today are very harsh against these attackers which can lead them to 10 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment with charges. There are many acts such as rape, domestic violence, harassment, physical and emotional abuse, and much more women suffer in their daily lives.

A Dream:
Living in a world with billions of people with billions of stories unheard. Being a woman, I can understand the other women. A story of Naseem and her only daughter, who ran out of the village to get away from misogynistic behavior in her family. She didn’t want her daughter to grow up in people with such a mindset. Naseem earns by cleaning houses. She works at my house and I truly admired her bravery and courage. She told me, “Women in our village are like puppets. We are not allowed to speak until our men allow us. We are slaves to them, and slaves are treated with no pity”. Her bold words were imprinted in my head.
She told me about the honor culture, how young girls were killed in honor if they bring shame to a community or a family. Naseem wanted her daughter to become something in her life that can advantage women and girls like her from such a patriarchal society.
Naseem told me about the domestic violence she had suffered throughout her marriage.
She suffered emotional and physical abuse because her husband wanted a huge sum of money for gambling. Rape was not a big deal for men but for women it was the opposite. “No one accepts a divorcee or a rape victim in our society”.

It may take some time to change such behavior or mindset in our society but the least we can do is to educate our young generation about the rank and major contributions of women in our world. Let’s not forget women like Naseem and many more who fight for their rights!