By: Kashf al-Iman
The strongest walls of society are not made of bricks and stones, they are the invisible boundaries that we draw in our minds from childhood. When a girl says, “I will grow up to be a pilot,” the answer is: “Girls don’t fly planes.” A sentence that brings dreams to the ground before they can take flight.
These walls are built by our daily behaviors. If a boy cries, “Be brave,” if a girl laughs, “Sit with distinction.” If a boy asks a question, “You are an intelligent child,” if a girl asks a question, “You are a talkative child.” Thus, the message is given in childhood that your wings are small and your sky is low.
Today’s woman goes to the office, participates in the economy, but does not feel safe even when returning home. She also works and suffers social accusations. Saadi had said, “But we have imprisoned half of our bodies at home and given free rein to the other half.” Then he asked the imprisoned part: “Why do you walk with a limp?”
Technology has also maintained this double standard. If a boy’s picture goes viral, it becomes a meme, if a girl’s picture is leaked, the character is questioned. If a boy stays up late at night, he is called “cool”, if a girl reads a book at night, she is considered a “rebel”. Manto’s phrase is still alive today: We have not considered women as human beings.
The boards in the market saying “Respect women” themselves are an admission that respect does not exist, otherwise there would be no need to write. Patients in hospitals look for “lady doctors” as if an invisible wall stands in the middle even during treatment with a male doctor. The same question echoes everywhere at the corner of the school, office, court and street: Is this place yours too?
Ghalib had said, “It is just difficult for everything to be easy”. It is difficult for a woman to study, earn, live. And it is not easy to die either. Honor killings, violence for dowry, in the name of silence But the pressure is all a result of the same thought that a woman’s crying is “drama” and a man’s anger is “right”.
Bulleh Shah had asked what the real difference is? The difference is that a man’s mistake is forgiven by calling it a “mistake”, while a woman’s very existence is made a question. A word, a hint, a rumor turns her whole life’s work into dust.
These walls will fall when we train our sons as much as we train our daughters. When we teach our boys that “no” means “no” and that respect is not in the dupatta but in the eyes. Morality demands that we separate justice from gender. Respect someone because they are human, not because they are our relatives.
I wish our daughters would not ask “Can I become a pilot?” but rather ask: “Which plane should I fly?” I wish our sons would not think, “Should girls be allowed or not?”… but rather think: “How can I share in her dream?”
The sky belongs to everyone, the wind blows for everyone, light is not the inheritance of any one house. Flying is the right of every human being. Walls fall when hearts change, and hearts change when conscience awakens.
Perhaps these lines will become a light knock on the closed door of an insensitive conscience, and that knock will reach the depths of the heart and awaken humanity.
The wall of ignorance will fall when conscience awakens
The sky of every woman’s dream will be covered
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