To Make A Change, Age Doesn't Matter
Unsinkable Storytelling Author: Affreen Parveen
Hey guys, I'm Affreen Parveen, a 16-year-old from India and I'm an intersectional feminist in progress and have always loved working with NGOs, communities and student-led organizations.
I have always had an interest in public speaking and advocating for people on social issues. I heard Emma Watson speak at the HeforShe campaign launch and I was fascinated when she said: "The more I have spoken about feminism, the more I have realized that fighting for women's right has too often been synonymous with man-hating, for one thing, I have known for sure is this has to stop, for the record feminism by definition is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities."
This is the thing happening nowadays and organizations and activists are working towards bringing a change in the world.
I still remember the time we had a family get together and suddenly some of my relatives started giving their opinions about "having a boy is much more beneficial than having a girl", this is not just the first time I'm listening to this and when I have started arguing with them on this topic, they just shut me down saying that I'm just a 16-year-old girl and I don't know the reality. In our school, we always had boys as captains and girls as vice-captains which always disturbed me, and I was never able to bring this issue forth.
GENDER EQUALITY is not just an issue there's this one thing that is still considered taboo in India, MENSTRUAL HYGIENE. Menstruation stigma is a form of misogyny. Taboos conditioned us to understand Menstruation as something shameful and Menstruation was always given euphemism (code words). I had a personal experience with this, on the day of haldi one of my eldest sisters was not allowed to put haldi on her because they thought touching haldi would make that impure. We are not allowed to go to dargahs when we bleed. Why an autonomical process is termed impure?
This is just not an end, there's one more issue Mental Health which is thought of as a stigma. I don't know what the thing on earth makes them think mental health as a stigma.
People always have this misconception about Menstrual Hygiene and Gender Equality and Mental Health. I have always wanted to open an organization of my own where I could like to spread awareness about all these things. So basically, after years of thinking and working on it, I have founded an organization named CARE CLUB which works on spreading awareness about Menstrual Hygiene and Gender Equality and Mental Health and to eradicate all the misconception and change the mindset of people. We had pad drives and I personally feel whenever we go to distribute pads people neglect us thinking kids. They don't want to confront anything, and which leads to the lack of education among them. We had conducted surveys from our area, from which we found out 70 % of women still use cloth.
I personally think the government should provide free pads because many women do not use pads due to cost. I have always look up to Michele Obama, Malala Yousafzai , Emma Watson and so many more strong women out there. I have learnt one thing from them is that we can eradicate these things by conversing with people more deeply about these issues, speaking up whenever required. We can also say no to newspapers and black bags when we go buy pads, stop using euphemisms.
People are working on it to eradicate these taboos, but I think it's really a difficult task to change people's mindset. Not all of us can go out of our ways to educate everyone. We can't change everyone, but we can start it near us by questioning the norms which also contributes to change. These little changes in our life can contribute to the greater picture.
This looks like an easy thing, but it needs a lot of courage to go out there in public and protest about certain elements in society and there's a lot of people out there who just exist to put other people down and I have come across a lot of them, and this is what makes me stronger, and it should make each and every one of us stronger.
After reading this about me, people may assume that I am a strong kid who has always been strong and never dealt with mental stress. But besides doing all of this for society, working towards changing people's mindsets I felt a phase in my life where my grades were degrading. When this happened I had a constant fear of not doing well enough and comparing myself to other people. I know many people can relate to this, if all this is happening it's completely okay to not feel okay, all the time. To freak out and be stressed about things.It's okay to deal with mental stress and not be ashamed of talking. I think the more you talk and share these things with close ones, the more you will feel better. This journey has been completely challenging, difficult and I wouldn't mind saying that, because of Care Club, I got to meet so many new talented amazing people who are actually passionate about changing the society and changing the norms and this makes me happy now.
Thank You.