Feminism Is For Everyone

         To begin with, Feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. How it all started? Well, feminism had three waves or movements. The first-wave of feminism refers to a period of feminist activity during the 19^th and early twentieth century in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. It mainly focused on legal issues and primarily on gaining women’s suffrage (the right to vote). However, lots of people have a misconception about Feminism.

         Unfortunately the term "feminism" usually has a negative connotation for some people. Some people think of feminists as a bunch of angry women who are men-haters and who are actually willing to discriminate against men or to promote women superiority. Men even tend to find women who call themselves “feminists” less attractive, less appealing or less desirable.

        Feminism is NOT for men-haters nor lesbians as some may claim. On the contrary, being a feminist is not a label and feminism is for everyone. Feminists' mission is to empower women not to degrade men. Feminism is for men and women who believe in the equality between the two sexes. “I am a feminist and we should all be feminists because feminism is another word for equality” says Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate.

         Why is it important? Feminism is a movement to give women a voice, to end sexism, male domination and female oppression in society. Feminism is taking gender out of the equation and treating women as free independent humans who have a lot to bring to the world and who are dreamers and ambitious individuals willing to leave their impact in society.

        What has Feminism accomplished? How has it made the world a better place for women? It granted women the right to vote, the right to receive an education, the right to have equal job opportunities and to equally get paid, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and the right to own property. In addition to that, according to research from Safe Horizon, 1 in every 4 women will experience domestic violence and 5 percent of women on college campuses experience rape or attempted rape every year. Feminism actually fights against sexual harassment, rape culture and domestic violence. Of course all of this varies from one society to another and we shall hope that Arab human right activists would help make the situation better in the Middle East and to spread awareness about Feminism on a larger scale. Don’t forget that even you can become an activist if you just believe in your cause.