Who told you I wasn't free?

Woman With Hijab by Rosie The Riveter

Everyone is free to do whatever they want unless you’re a woman, there are quite a few limitations to that...

Everyone is free to practice their faith without getting called out for it, unless you’re a Muslim –woman-…

Everyone is free to wear whatever they want, however they want, as long as they mind their own business, -that is of course- unless you’re a veiled Muslim woman. 

It’s like the tri-factor of doom in this day and age; because while people scream and chant for equality, for acceptance, for global freedom, some are chanting it in the faces of those who need not be freed of anything but the constant stares, the trials at forced freedom of bounds only existing in the heads of those trying to free them.

We need education before anything else, globally. Being a feminist has become quite the trend if I might say, but being a veiled feminist? God forbid! You need to be freed at first sister!

I understand that every day we read and hear, sometimes even witness awful awful stories of women being forced to do things against their own will; be it from state laws, guardians or even husbands, all under the name of religion. And the truth is, these women are the ones who really need the saving, not those willingly and by complete decision of will chose their own paths.

In fact, the latter would be the ones trying alongside you to free them, which of course you’d know and realize if you would get off your high horse and stop shouting freedom in their free faces every chance you get.

But the question is, who told you I wasn’t free?

Feminism as a concept is a great thing. However those practicing it need to realize what cause they are fighting for, theirs, or that of those in real need of being freed. It is so easy for a ‘feminist’ to decide that the ideal female who has proper self-respect would not:

· Wear make-up

· Get married, or even think about it

And Finally,

· Spit on everything “male”

All in supposedly the course to free herself from “mind oppression.”

But whose mind is really oppressed here? We’re not calling for global domination of the female race –that is the race united and freed from all  the judgments-, but rather the harmony of life between all races and with it all beliefs, all shapes and sizes of human beings.

We are calling for people –women in particular- to be free to choose their own paths and be respected for whatever choices they make, be it ‘oppressing’ oneself by choosing to wear the hijab based on personal beliefs, or even not choosing to. Whatever choice a woman makes should not be judged so harshly by others based on different ethnicity and identities.

Feminism in my opinion is not about creating an identically perfect army of fierce women who fear nothing and no one, but in creating acceptance among ourselves and everyone else of all the different shapes, sizes and mind-sets that women come with.

A man can never really be judged for his beliefs or the way he chooses to dress or speak –although sometimes they still do-, because it has been universally engraved in our minds that a man can do no wrong, so why can’t the same be said for women? Why can’t the same be said for everyone? All different pallets of them?

That is why we need the right feminism.

If you're still wondering whether I am free or not, then you need it too.