“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

-Charlotte Bronte,Jane Eyre

In fact, everyone is honey. Not just women. Most importantly, not just men. 

If you are an English classics lover like me, you should have a fine idea by now on the picture I’m going to fabricate within the next few minutes.

Am I going to elaborate on what the Brontë sisters had to go through in the 1800s? The world has evolved so much since then; maybe the suppression is low, but empowerment is always encouraged. It’s time for all to be done with the complaining and negativity.  

I’m going to talk about Asha, Michelle, Muniba, and Priyanka. I’m going to talk about you and me. I’m going to talk about empowering women.

To get to the point clearly, even though many of the problems are with the world you live in, would you agree with me if I say that the solution is right within you? If you are not offered the freedom, respect, or equality that you deserve, then it’s time for you to EARN IT. And trust me, all you have to do is making yourself empowered from within. But the question is how are we going to do it? 

As a young woman myself, having been living in a 3^rd world country since birth, I learned something overriding throughout the years. Let me quote something which takes my memory back to where we started. 

“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”

 -Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Something that never changed for the 1800s or the 21^st century; education is the prime key to get you out of the cage you were put once you were born into this world as a sweet little girl. Why do you think Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel prize laureate fought for the right the girls have for education, risking her own life to gunshots? 

Because, some extraordinary people like her, saw that the iron bars of these cages can only be melted and shattered with the power of education. A society and nation, capable of delivering a quality education will never create people who condemn others for their gender, people who harass others for the sake of their own mental traumas, or people who are afraid to step forward when unjust is served on a plate for them. 

I know, not everyone wants to be a highly accomplished and world-renowned scientist like Asha De Vos. Maybe you want to be a loving and caring wife like Muniba Mazari once wanted to be. I respect your choice. At the end of the day, all that matters is ‘Are you making yourself happy enough while making the world a better place as well?’. 

But all these women had something common in them. A burning flame that will never go out. A burning flame of desire to never give up on themselves. So, for the same reason, no one could stop them. The people who were intimidated by how smart you are, people who left you alone thinking you are nothing but a fancy object, the people who thought you should not get paid as much as anyone else because you are a woman will no longer be able to destroy you, once you decide to stop hiding and start to armor yourself.

The last but not least, take some time to check out the life stories of the women who conquered the world and be inspired. Learn everything you can learn and make the maximum out of every opportunity that comes your way. Maybe you don’t want to conquer a world, but you will definitely conquer yourself. 

Women alone cannot survive in the world. Men, women, and every other gender in the world are essential for the balance of nature, and we survive by co-depending. You don’t have to be equal to anyone else to earn your sparkle.

On the day you embrace every ounce of your femininity and decide to rise up from that, that’s when you are going to be legitimately powerful. That’s when you become capable of making life a better party for you, for your fellow women, and every other human being on the planet. Because my darling, you are, and everything you have, is enough. 

You feel. You create. You conquer. Because you are, A WOMAN. 

Written by Rtr. Tinaya Wijethunge