Humans Of Patriarchy

// The night before the big day. Fatima wrote in her diary the things that are going to change from tomorrow //

Dear Diary,

Wedding is supposed to be the most beautiful day in a girl's life and maybe the most important too. A girl looks beautiful in her bridal dress, with a delicately embroidered red saree draping her body and with a beautiful dupatta over her head making her look like the most beautiful and elegant woman in the world.

But here young girls are made to wear henna at a tender age. Red Bangles are worn by the women to mark the sanctity of marriage but little do they know these are shackles which cut out their freedom. Here women are objectified and they are only considered as a burden for parents and funnily enough parents try to rid of them, and how? By getting them married. Now when I was a child my grandma used to tell me marriages are holy bond that we should hold tightly with all our heart and it's a sacred thing which should be kept with the love but the thing is who cares what the girl wants.

Fatima's heart starts beating fast, she startsshivering and crying that all her childhood is going to fade away in just seven pheras.

When girls are married they have to give up their surname and take up their husband's surname, leave their home and if pressurized their job too. Why? Cause we, women are shackled by patriarchy, we are the victims of male chauvinism.

I was just 13 years old andused to play with my friends and used to draw those birds flying up in the sky, run through the fields and used to write my dreams but now I see all my childhood, all my freedom ,my happiness is lost. Tomorrow I am going to enterthat phase of my life which is completely unknown to me, the path that I haven't traveled ,the path that I fear to travel. Tomorrow I will be someone's wife and someday later I will be a mother. I know motherhood is a happiness. When my child will be born and when I will carry that little one in my arms, it will feel like I am at the top of the world but what about my innocence, my dreams, my teenage life. FunnilyI am just 13. We are in that world where people are fighting against poverty ,people are raising their voice against child labour but have you ever thought of marital rape, child marriage. No, why? Cause we are women, the humans of patriarchy.

I, like other girls too want to get married to someone I love but after completing my education after building up my career not now maybe later because my dreams are still at their infancy, theyare still nurturing. Have you ever wondered how the birds fly freely in the sky perhaps maybe because they are not shackled by this patriarchy and that they are free but we are not and the reason being we are women

We got our independence back on 1947 but are we really independent?, Are we allowed to do what we want to. Yes, we are but not the girls. It's 2019, here girls of 7 year olds are dressed in bridal dress, taking 7 pheras, giving up their dreams and some are just breathing behind the burkhas. If we the women try to raise our voice we aresuppressed by the dominating class, girls fear going outside after dark fearing that they might lose their dignity to an unknown stranger, we are the victims of acid attack, rape, marital rape, harassment, abuse physically and verbally and moreover WE ARE THE VICTIMS OF PATRIARCHY.

It's high time India we should raise our voice for the daughters of our nation. We should speak out and stop this. We are no victims we are the strongest species anyone has ever seen. Women are inevitable, the bravest soldier anyone has seen. Let's stand out. I have lost my chance but not the upcoming generation let's make a better world for them.

// Fatima closes her diary and keeps it in the cupboard thinking that someday someone might find it and make the change. She looked at the mirror and pulled her dupatta down. Today was her wedding day.//