- 'Not all men' — a statement rife with misogyny — has been popularized by young men on social media in order to defend the public image of men in general.
- This piece reflects upon how normalized gender-based violence and oppression have become in today’s time.
READ THE ARTICLE IN ITALIAN HERE / QUI LA TRADUZIONE IN ITALIANO DELL'ARTICOLO
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| Image of a girl holding a flag at the annual Women’s March held in 2019 in Pakistan. The flag reads: <<Women’s March 2019. We women>>. Credit: Beenish Sarfaraz |
Patriarchy is a death sentence for women all over the world.
In Naples, Italy, 14-year-old Martina Carbonaro was recently found stoned to death by her ex-boyfriend. In 2006, 20-year-old Pakistani woman, Hina Saleem, was murdered by her father in a horrifying 'honour killing' in Brescia, Italy. This case sparked a nationwide debate about Italy’s own history and laws regarding honour killings. In Pakistan, such brutal cases of violence are so common that they don’t even make the news.
This thinkpiece—penned by Pakistani writer, Sana Siddiqui, currently living in Naples—discusses the everyday cruelty that women face due to the patriarchal customs embedded in our societies.
Speaking out in this society is almost a rebellion in itself—so I want to speak out. Because there really isn't much that a small, young woman can do to bring change in her country.
Living in one of the most unsafe-for-women countries in the world sucks. Because every day we hear terrible news about someone or the other, a woman or a child, being horrifically abused, harassed, or assaulted—if not worse. We live in this terror constantly. You'll see people share posts of such occurrences with the captions, "This could have been us." But it is. It is us. It is our friends, our mothers, our sisters, our aunts. All of us have a story. Some just don't live to tell it.