Being a girl, from Nepal

So someone told me I should write about other things that I deeply care about and the one thing I am really opinionated about is gender equality. And being a woman myself, people usually mistake my want for equality as feminism. To be honest I don’t really care what you call me as long as you hear me or at least pretend to! I am from Nepal and trust me I am super proud of that fact. I love a lot of things about my country and will support any Nepalese whenever needed. I have that inside me but having said that there are a lot of things that I don’t understand, actually more like I don’t want to understand. The kind of things that creates a huge division between a man and a woman.

I don’t appreciate being told who I am by other people who don’t even know me.

Yes, I am a woman and proudly so. But people who love bringing a woman down because they think a woman cannot be on the same level as a man, make me sick. I am not saying women are better than men because that would make me a hypocrite. And honestly I don’t think women are any better than men, but that doesn’t mean men are better than women. So this is where I argue all the time. I don’t care if you hold the door for me or not, if I am walking ahead of you I will hold it for you. I am the kind of person who hates being told, “Oh he should do this or that because he is a man”. I mean who defines what should be done by a man or a woman? Is there like a rule book that I am missing out on? Don’t get me wrong, I love being pampered by my man but I will not just sit here be the showcase girl all the time. I will return the favour.

Who is to tell me my father’s house is not mine because I am married? But if I had a brother it would still be his house although he is married? I mean does that even make sense? Why do we have a culture that makes a daughter an outsider whilst the son is forever own? Only if I had a time machine, I would go back in the time and see what drunken bunch of men made these rules under what circumstances. It probably came from people who didn’t have a daughter or didn’t have a basic common sense. I am not dissing people who believe in all these, it’s not your fault that you are following your culture here. But equally should you not be improving your culture if it is hurting your family or your own daughter.

“Is culture really more important than your own child?”

Luckily for me, I have a family that understand this and have taught me to fight for what I truly believe in. And this is what I believe in! Treat your daughters exactly how you treat your son and not just for saying sake. Show them you mean it, and show them you are not worried about what others say. You care about them.

With all these being said, I am not trying to be disrespectful of my culture or anyone else who is merely following it. All I am saying is perhaps you don’t see this as a big issue or don’t understand what the fuss is about, but I am a daughter and trust me when I say this, “it hurts!” There are already plenty of other reasons ready to hurts us with every opportunity they get, so please don’t be one!