We women born in the second half of the twentieth century are the first generation of women ever born who had had, in advance, regulations by which we could be regarded as human beings, equal before the law as well as men. Millennia before no one thought that this could be so; nobody would think that it was irregular that men, a half of humankind, possessed all the rules and privileges, and women, another half of population, existed without any rights, but automatically acted upon men’s rules in silence, worked for men’s rules and destined to live their lives without human rights to be asked to make any decision about their own likes or dislikes in life. Commands like “Shut up, listen and work”, and “I give food to you”, were regularly used by their “masters”; oh yes, so it was.
Where did we get these rights?
We women fought for them, we were dying for these rights. Former generations of women, nameless, and often forgotten, were detained, persecuted, gunned down and killed on the gallows, simply because they wanted to live their lives as an equal female human being.
What did they pursue?
The right to education, to work, to possess property, to have a bank account, the right to travel alone wherever they wanted, the right to vote, to participate in public and political life, the right to live their lives free of violence, to choose to marry or not, to procreate or not. The right to free choice about how and with whom and where to dedicate their lives.
We women could not have had this right written and law passed long before we were born unless a male majority had decided at the clear request of those generations of women on whose shoulders we are standing today preparing our shoulders for all those women who are going to come after us. We do that in order to get them to live better and to really hold all their human rights.
Daily life shows us that our rights, although written and lawful, are still not worth a damn because of bottomless and influential layers of prejudice based on the idea that every woman is goods, not a person, and can be treated as somebody wish, can be belittled, humiliated and insulted just in order to be “to put in their place.”
That’s predominantly why we celebrate March 8, why we have the action “16 days of the struggle against violence,” why continually have to prove that we are praiseworthy of rights that are guaranteed by 1948 UN Declaration and all other subsequent laws and regulations.
It is illegal, when employing, to ask about marital status as well as “will you have children“, it is illegal to beat up and do over a women whenever her husband or partner come to their mind, it is illegal to create salary for woman that is less than the salary of a man for the same type of job, it is illegal to be mocked only because you’re a woman, and silenced, belittled and considered the goods and property, instead of being treated as a human being totally, utterly, entirely and absolutely equal with men.
However, all this happens to many women, all of this make many women unhappy regardless of age or of current legislation.
Why is so hard to transform all these written words in practical life? Why does so slow flow the process of accepting legal obligations to ban prejudicial behavior that says “we do not need to keep blindly like” to the law only when it comes to women?
What is the explanation of the conversion of women’s rights in “a half pipe of tobacco”? It’s a long and imaginative list and it is easy to identify such pretext everywhere, which is btw tactlessly articulated with easiness.
If she is beaten up, then and there, “she was up for, she was provoking, or he was drunk and unhappy, why – because she emotionally mistreated him.”
If they refuse to employ her, it is because “what to do with it her, she will marry, she will have a child, frequently on a sick leave, and I do not have money for it, let somebody else to take care of her”.
And lo and behold, if she wants to come into politics then you hear “so what can you do, it’s not for women, there are no decent women, and women themselves are not interested in political matters.”
If she wants a car, property or a house, flat, whatever, in her ownership they will ask is “aren’t you married? How’ that, why not? “
If she chooses what to wear they will tell her, “that’s how you dress provocatively, after bitching about what they hiss” or “dresses like she is her own mother”. If she is ugly then and there it is the most important thing to be known about her. If she’s pretty then everybody knows what she is entitled to – to seduce, to be seduced and then to be titled by derogatory names.
And the worst offence that could be said is “she is a feminist, which is of course “God forbid! “
If you are standing as you are reading this – sit down, please, for I have something to tell you. If you are verbally in favor of all the women’s rights, equality and equity, then you are a feminist. It is so even if you are convinced that you are not.
I therefore congratulate you on March 8.
Author: Gordana Čomić