Feminist, a word I often use to describe myself. When I use this word I feel strong, like a fighter out there trying to make the world a better place for my fellow sisters that are living in a harsh reality of rape, abuse, disrespect and pain just because they were born girls. Growing in East Africa Ethiopia meant the denial of rights to girls and woman was immense, I grew up hearing reports of abduction, rape, forced marriage, FGM and many more hidden under the blanket of culture, I noticed girls were treated differently since I was a child, education for boys was mandatory but it was a luxury for girls.
I was lucky enough to be born in the urban area of Ethiopia, my parents were educated thus knew the value of education. Fortunately I was able to learn Law in one of the best universities in Ethiopia, but education meant more insights. The more I knew my rights, the more I realized how violated my fellow sisters in the rural areas were. The more I learned about the traumatic aftermath of rape, the more mortified I became when thinking of the tradition that forces young girls that were raped to marry their rapists, the more I read and learned, the more heartbroken I became when reading about the harmful tradition of “Telefa” in which young girls as young as 8 years old were abducted on their way back from school by older men for marriage. Being a feminist in Ethiopia is different than being a feminist in the western world, some people view us as culture destroyers trying to change the morals of the future generation in order for it to align with that of the western world. Imagine asking for the basic right of protection against harmful traditions and being seen as a westerner wannabe trying to destroy the culture. But despite all of this, we still fight, we still fight against the smallest sign of injustice because for us, everything and anything is seen through a gendered lens.
March 13th 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ethiopia, a disease that brought the world to its knees but at the same time connected us all, a virus that made us realize we were all each other’s keepers. As a natural response everyone started panicking that day, officials were stating everything was going to be alright as long as we stayed home for the majority of the time, and that was what we did. We, the lucky ones, stayed home and protected ourselves and our families, but it was heartbreaking to imagine those who lived in an abusive households, those living with potential rapists, those unable to stop working even for a day because that meant their family wouldn’t have food to eat. It’s no news that this world is unfair, some complain about being stuck in quarantine while others wished they could stay home and protect their family if only they could afford it. Months passed in this situation and then we all heard the news we were dreading. 101 children were raped in the duration of two months due to them staying at home from school. It was even more heartbreaking to hear the majority of them aging from 14 to 17 have been raped by their own fathers. That was the nightmare a lot of children called reality, even worse is the fact that the report only considered cases reported from 3 hospitals, making the actual number higher. I couldn’t even imagine the psychological trauma this brought to those innocent children that were violated by their own father, the person that was supposed to protect them in this uncertain time.
There I was, calling myself a feminist and trying to fight for gender equality but I couldn’t help them, I felt useless, as if I was fighting for a lost cause. I had never felt as useless as I did during the first months of corona virus entering our country, everything was filled with uncertainties but nothing was as uncertain as the fate of many young girls in this dark time. Young girls in the rural area had to fight a lot of odds to be able to get the education they deserve, but closure of schools meant their chances of being the victim of forced marriage only grew higher. It was even told on different Medias that officials were worried if schools were closed for too long, the probability of young girls returning was small. Every news outlet was telling people to stay home, as if everyone had a safe house to call home. What do you do when you’re told to go home in order to stay safe but your house couldn’t provide you the safety you needed? The horrors didn’t stop there, Domestic abuse within the households was reported to have grown within the months of COVID-19 entering our country as the struggling economy was bringing pressure on the husbands and fathers of the household, who are the financial providers in many of the cases. It’s no lie that COVID-19 disrupted the way of living for all of us, but watching it from a gendered lens, it only gets darker. I only gave you the tip of the iceberg of what it’s like to be a feminist in the time of COVID-19, I hope my perspective gave you a little insight into the issues currently faced by young children and women in my country. I hope we all fight against the injustices faced by many, because despite all that divides us, corona virus has taught us something, separated we lose, and TOGETHER WE WIN.
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