RSS 2.0 - Blog FeedRole of Women
The first thing you do when you wake up is running to your laptop to check mails. Using computers and laptops has become so common among women that we, ladies, rarely think our lives could be different.
Were it not for the place we were born in and the family we grew in, we could have faced a totally different situation. In the developed world, the role of woman has changed, but what about the poorest countries?Just a quick look on the way women in Sub-Saharan Africa live is enough to understand: we are the luckiest of the luckiest! We, ladies, are free to choose daily activities and professions. We have laws to protect ourselves from discrimination, and we see nothing bad in not doing household chores. Some of us are housewives. Some of us are professional managers. Our children have everything they need to enjoy their lives. Unfortunately, it is not until we look into the eyes of poverty and discrimination that we realize our happiness.
Do you know that, according to one international organization, the poorest person in the world lives in Africa and this person is a woman? Have you ever thought of what it means being a woman in Africa? Have you ever tried to look at the world through an African woman’s eyes? Try it at least once, and you will never say that you have missed something in this life! Millions of women in Africa live in poverty and have but to reconcile with their social status. Unlike many women in the western world, women in Africa cannot work and have no opportunity to protect their rights. There are no women in African public spaces. Even if some women do manage to move along the social ladder, it is because they are preferred by the chief and will have to pay back their debt.
Women in Africa are housekeepers, wives, and mothers. It is through these roles that African women have some chances to protect their dignity and life. African women develop special relationships with their sons, and they have a special right to manage and command their sons until the end of life. Moreover, a woman in Africa is the foundation of stability and family. They are claimed to participate in all family matters with their spouses and influence greatly all family and community decisions.
This can be truthful, but what price do women have to pay for their dignity and life? Imagine yourself looking for water or gathering crops 18 hours a day. Under the hot sun and with your hands torn by sharp wings, all concerns, including fashion and career, are pushed to the background. The life of a woman in Africa is neither sweet nor enjoyable. It is a harsh reality of violence and hard work. Yet, even then, women do not lose their lady-like spirit. They look tired but feminine. They feel the dignity of being a woman. They are proud to be women, and the whole planet should be proud of them.
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