Just like white privilege, there is male privilege. It's when you think something is not a problem because it does not affect you personally. It's easy to ignore sexism when it works in your favour! Your feminism isn't valid if it only applies to your mothers, sisters, and daughters.

This lockdown induced a new trauma through the online learning system. Well, starting off with the fact that not everyone has access to laptops and computers to attend classes. Even I’m one of them, so no - we are not in this together, because you might not even know what it’s like to wait for your turn to use a laptop.

At an individual level, people's experience of reactance strongly depends on the most attainable goals and values when the threat occurs. In the COVID-19 case, fundamental goals and values such as education, the right to freely move, and religious practices are threatened. Two main factors that determine the reaction to these announced health-related measures are the absoluteness and self-relevance. If the threat is absolute, people rationalize it. If it is not, people respond with reactance. Both become stronger when the threat is self-relevant.

Please stop dividing women. Modern or traditional, female is a female. In Pakistan, we all are suffering in our known and unknown ways. Living in a context where tradition wins over common sense or science, the transfer of intergenerational trauma becomes a part of the DNA of our society. Expressed or unexpressed, we all carry this silent mutation.

I know so many girls in my country who want to wear jeans but are not allowed to do so because you see “decent girls need to dress a certain way”. Your jeans are too tight, your shirt is too short, lower your dupatta and cover your face, if someone touches you it’s probably because you dressed a certain way.

Gender roles expect girls to marry a man of their parents’ choice and if they don’t, they are labelled as characterless or disobedient. Boys are expected to follow the footsteps of their fathers. If a man has worked day and night to build his business, his son is bound to take over.

She looked at me in distaste as if I was the one who had wronged.
I said,
"Aunty didn't it take you too long?
To realize that my tea and I aren't just the same shade, we're both just as strong."

"You have been here long, but no change, in any case, it has been negative. You have lost yourself in him, what now?", the soft yet firm voice, echoed louder in my bones than in my inner ears. I thought I could fix him , I was wrong! My own emotions were in a fix. I thought I could heal him. Wrong, my own wounds of past were there glaring with rage in my heart.

I have society to fear, its grueling questions. While you might be the person telling me that it is a sin to kill the embryo growing within me, I also know you are among the people who would question my character and my chastity. I know, I shouldn’t fear the world created by the generations before me, but everyone existing in its aftermath hasn’t made it easier for me. Maybe you can’t be supportive of my decisions, maybe you’ll be in constant disagreement; nor would I ask you not to be.  But please, respect my being, accept my choices and do not decide them for me.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recorded 18 instances of fetal snatchings in the United States somewhere in the range of 1983 and 2015, which spoke to 6% of the recorded 302 instances of baby kidnapping. "Womb Raidings" and "Cesarean Kidnapping" are media terms for fetal kidnapping.

Cultures vary in what they regard as right and wrong, standards vary from place to place. Over time, there is no universal standard, and consequently, it is mistaken to criticize the practices of another culture. I get that. But…

You see, the thing with being raped, or just generally being abused at such a young age, is that you find it hard to open up to people about it. I would know because for me, it started when I was about four years old. I really don't remember much about that time of my life but I can never forget what she did to me. Yes, "she".

Why do you underrate me?
Why do you tell me what I am
Or what I could ever be?
Why do you not tell that to your boys?
Why do I have to earn your trust,
walking a hundred miles more?

He forced himself onto me,
He just didn't let me feel so free.
The man hitting me was so strong,
Oh, mother. Tell me? What did I do wrong?

Societal perception of working women, inadequate recognition, ignorance to opportunities, and limited mobility, are blockades in integrating women in developmental roles, making women passive observers in the country’s economic sector.

Tell me to be ‘ladylike’ and sit cross-legged.
I will spread them far apart, do a split,
And dance to the rhythm of your grimaces.

We had had our usual fight. Before it was verbal, but it got physical on this day he came home - on my birthday.

Smoking is injurious to health”. Like everyone else, I believed it to be true but I often questioned myself that “why did they always show men smoking in the ad and not women?” Or “is smoking gender specific?”. I did not dare ask this question from my parents because some things do not have room for discussion in brown culture, especially coming from a girl.

They spent their all time romancing. Ah the travelling and the fun we had. It was amazing. They couldn't stop. They didn't even want to. Their careers were great too. The richest in the town, the best car with the biggest house. The beautiful interiors. The money one of them earned was enough for one lifetime itself. But happiness life doesn't last forever. Does It?

Dear blind love,
The world doesn't have a face, yet it wears a mask. Not just A mask. The faceless world wears as many masks as it pleases, masquerading around as a lover today, a heartbreaker tomorrow; a saint today, a cynic tomorrow. A human rights activist today, condemning humans tomorrow. Is it not ironic? 

I live in a country where people do talk about feminism and girl's rights but only in ideas, because they fail to apply their ideas in reality. For them, women are the idol of greatness, the idol of purity, and perfectness. But that's what the problem is!

You show this world that you care by saying "shame on you RAPIST" but you have no shame for yourself for making and sharing videos of the girl, who was unconscious just after being raped. Is it what proves you pious? Is it what proves that you have taken a step for the girl?

Did you know? Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India, and over 26,000 cases of rape have been reported in India. Also, another interesting piece of trivia, almost 98% of these were committed by a person known to the victim. I wonder who are worse, the 98% to do such a thing to someone who trusts you, or the other 2% to do it to a stranger in the bus.

I could be a she, I could be a he,
I could be anyone I believe to be, 
because gender is not my reality…