Feminist! You say that as if it was a dirty word. I have
been accused
of being a feminist. It’s an accusation as though by standing up for my rights
I am doing something wrong. Maybe it’s the brazenness that I dared to speak up
for myself and other women. Maybe it’s the temerity I had to know my rights and
insist on them being upheld. Perhaps it’s the sheer fact that I am a woman.
Feminists are hated mainly by a society that disregards women, that does not
consider us even human. I will go ahead and let you know what feminism really
is because it’s easy to hate what you are ignorant about. Feminism is the
notion that women are people too.
Yes, women are people too. As in the person who gave birth
to you is a woman who is also a human being just like you. Kenya is a
patriarchy inherited from a country that is ruled by a Queen, and yet our
patriarchy resolutely dehumanizes its women. Let’s face it, there is no gender
equality in this country and I doubt there ever will be. Why? It’s because misogyny
is also practiced by women.
Yes, it’s a shocker, but women are their own worst enemies.
It is us who will hold down our daughters so that their genitals are cut. It is
us who will shout down the outspoken woman. It is us who will be home wreckers
and conduct love affairs with married men. It is us who will scream pro-life
and then refuse to use a condom. It is us who will call each other prostitute,
and gossip about each other. It is us who won’t vote for female political
aspirants. It is us who will deny feminism and hate on feminists.
But it is not just women who are misogynists. It’s the
church, the schools, the government and the husband. It’s the men who claim
that “you are just emotional” when they are losing an argument, to
psychologically manipulate you into thinking that you are crazy. It’s the
doctors who take a woman’s menstrual pain as something she is exaggerating, it
is the teacher who will not let the girl go to the toilet to change her
sanitary towel during class time such that her underwear becomes soaked with
blood, it is the Pastor who insists that women must submit to men even though
submission should be a choice made willingly; it is the government that
provides free male circumcision and charges women expensively for tubal
ligation. It is the husband who treats his wife like a domestic and sexual
slave and nothing more.
It is a country that insists that abortion is a crime and a
sin, and yet does not provide access to adequate maternal healthcare. It is a
society that punishes women for being sexual beings and for having sex and yet
praises men for “sowing their wild oats.” It is a continent where rape is used
as a weapon of war on innocent civilians. It is the proliferation of female
genital mutilation even though we are in the 21st century.
Women mean nothing here. We are no better than cattle. When
we are young our bodies are cut so that we are “clean” for our future husband,
when we are married we are sold off for a few goats, when we have children we
are blamed for the gender of the baby – if they are girls we are chased away.
When we are old, we are called witches and set on fire. We spend our whole
lives being an accessory to someone else.
In politics, and because it is purely tribal politics in
Kenya, when the opposition want to insult each other they refer to their
opponents women. “Kikuyu girls are ...”, “Luo girls are…” You can fill in the
blanks with every sort of epithet under the sun. We are the brunt of vitriol
spewed on other ethnicities, in the name of politics. One leading presidential
candidate even wondered whether other tribes don’t give birth to presidents, it
is only certain tribes. I wonder what the hell our mothers have to do with a
failure to convince an electorate of your own suitability for the job.
Sojourner Truth put it best when she remarked on the
oppression faced by African women. “Black woman, you are the mule of the
world.”
In our own sort of perverted way of trying to balance things
out, the drafters of the constitution crafted the one third gender principle.
It’s a part of the supreme law that states that in all elective and constitutional
bodies one third of the officials or state officers must be of the opposite
gender. I don’t know how they came up with one third, seeing as equality would
dictate that HALF of all officials are male and the other half is female. The
result of this debacle of a principle is that one’s gender supersedes one’s
qualification for the particular post. It certainly is not a feminist ideal to
be given a post simply because you are female, but to be given the opportunity
to contest in a level and fair playing field and to be taken seriously as a
professional.
The more hilarious application of this false equality is
found in the sexual offenses act, section 3 (1) a person commits the offense
termed rape if (a) he or SHE intentionally and unlawfully commits and act which
causes penetration with his or her genital organ. The essence of law
is in the language of the law; perhaps English was just too difficult for the
person who conjured this up. How it is possible for a vagina to penetrate
anything? Physically, it’s a hole! Poor women, there is a law out there that
can criminalize the physically impossible all in the name of “equality.”
We don’t deserve to be taken for granted or taken for a ride
either. A government that declares free maternity care for all women is certainly
pulling our legs especially considering that the maternity costs were as low as
50 shillings. Never mind that free or not, the maternal death rate will not
drop because there aren’t enough doctors or resources anyway. To add insult to
injury, the government hashed out a deal with rogue MPs where they are to
receive 150,000kshs maternity allowance. I wonder what sort of babies the
mostly male MPs will be expecting. Some already look quite pregnant with their
fat bellies.
I am a feminist because I refuse to be dehumanized any
longer. Because I know that I am just as human as any man. I am a feminist
because I value my life and the lives of other women as well. I am a feminist
because I have to stand up and speak up for my rights, my concerns, my privileges
and my future. Until all men and women are considered equally human with equal
rights, no society can claim to be civilized while mistreating the life
bearers, the mothers, daughters, sisters and aunts. No society can claim to be
civilized while dehumanizing half of humanity. No religion can ever justify
oppressing God’s creation. I am feminist because I am human too! If you can
tell a civilization by how they treat women, then ours is a truly primitive
nation.
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