The Biased Marathon by Ibraheem Saqib

You call them backwards and primitive but ultimately, do they not echo the truth? When the seats of government and the boards of multinational companies are dominated by the male, do you still claim equality? Surely you would make more than eleven percent of the world’s billionaires if you were truly capable, it is not like the law forbids you to.

The fact is, it is not the law but society. You see, life is a discriminatory marathon; one path passes through parks and across skyscrapers, the other through a rocky uphill track ridden with mines. Then, perhaps, you have some basis for your struggle but surely you can do something about it, right?

Wrong, you enter the rickshaw with a two for one deal, a ride to your destination and premium invasive stares. You head into the market to face a dozen men ‘accidentally’ bumping into you. Cover yourself with a scarf and you only pique their interest. You are harassed in the nights and they say:

“Why are you out so late?”

Then, surely, you would not wish to exit the secure confines of your home, right?

Wrong, you overcome the challenges and head out for your job interviews. Finally, you are judged on the basis of your skills and hired, as one in four female graduates who end up working, in a patriarchal workspace. Yet you scale the rocks and reach the summit. You approach a client, and he questions:

“Your boss is coming, right?

You fall off the cliff into an abyss, downcast and dejected, surely you would lose all hope.

Say you manage to hold on against a hanging branch and climb back up, bruised and blemished. You confront the man and make yourself known. He falls to the ground to reveal your parents behind. What now?

“Your fate is sealed,” they announce.

You are to be a wife. You studied long and hard not to be economically independent, but to better your prospects in the marriage market. Yet you persuade them otherwise and they too disappear to reveal the marvelous scenery before you, congratulations. You are now part of the lucky few who have achieved their ambition.

But what of those, as skilled as you, who accidentally set off a mine? What of those who slipped to the base, never again to return. You know what must be done. The mountain must be levelled.

They must be educated. They must lower their gazes as you wear your scarf. They must learn to treat you as a fellow human being. It is not you who should stay at home but the perverts and rapists who roam above the law. It is the law and its makers who must not blame you for being raped, who must make sure that 70 rape cases are not recorded within two months in just one city. It is the parents and the educators who must teach them to respect you.

Certainly, you will not change an entire nation overnight. Rock by rock, you will tear apart the mountain until it is no more. Then, you shall safely drive on the motorways at night, you shall be treated by them with courtesy and respect, your destination shall be determined by you and not by your gender.