Injustice
“If we are to fight discrimination and injustice against women, we must start from the home for if a woman cannot be safe in her own house then she cannot be expected to feel safe anywhere.”
― Aysha Taryam
At first, she is young.
A little girl sits at a table, her head buried in her arms. She’s at one of her homes now. I don’t know how she feels. When the Announcement happens, she stays silent. Finally, the one woman pushes her, asks if she has anything to say. The meeting is about to end, and she still hasn’t spoken a word. She drags her head up out of her arms, blinks, gives glassy eyed stare. “I don’t have anything to say,” she says.
Her sister’s eyes flash defiant. A woman she never met before this day tears her life apart, again, like a soft dinner roll. She can’t be trusted. She lies about her stepfather, mother, they say. As punishment, they lie to her face. As if she’s too stupid to know her own reality. “We talked to you about this new schedule.” “No, you didn’t,” she snaps, knowing the consequences of talking back. She doesn’t appear to care about consequences anymore.
The little girl grows up.
She meets a man. He is charming, just like her mother. He’ll be this way, until she does something (anything) with which he disagrees. Until she wants something he doesn’t want. In her heart, she recognizes this. She also believes she deserves a man like this. Better her than some other poor fool. She knows how to handle him. “Oh, thank you, chocolate is my favorite!” It’s his favorite, so it’s hers. She doesn’t care one way or the other about chocolate. There’s nothing wrong with chocolate. “How are you,” her friend asks. “I’m fine,” she responds.
Her sister marries nobody. She will not allow herself to be hurt again. She doesn’t talk much to her younger sister. It isn’t as if they can talk about anything, anyway. She picks up her mail, there’s a letter. She knows it’s from her mother; she takes the envelope and tosses it into the neighbor’s trashcan.
I don’t know much, but I do know this:
There is nothing so damaging, so cruel, as when Women hurt other Women.