EQUALITY A NECCESSITY

      EQUALITY :  A NECESSITY

The Character Of Love

 I grew up in Africa-Nigeria, to be precise, where faith and spirituality are revered while patriarchy prevails. I began to wonder why these two different concepts should exist at the same time, because the foundation of the Christian faith taught to us in the Bible is love, which Christ summarized as submission and selflessness. This same love is characterized and represented by God's firm desire to save the world through His son, Jesus Christ.

I consider it true that most of the events in the Bible took place in a patriarchal context. I could also deduce that the objective of the Bible is not dominance and oppression. I assume that Jesus' life on earth can be used as a marker script to correct all the false impressions of God conveyed to us through the Bible by sincere but limited people. In his exemplary life here on earth, Jesus taught us the meaning and importance of love and, in various encounters, challenged misogyny and inequality. Any use of the Bible to justify dominance and oppression of a person is, in my opinion, an aberration and misunderstanding.

A few months ago, I had a dream that I didn't quite understand, because before that dream, I wrote blogs, but I never had a reason to think about or understand the goal of inequality in society. I was a proponent of the belief that men had a slight advantage over women, and I based my evidence solely on what I saw in society. I did not have extreme views, nor were my views equal. I was born into a family that did not hold extreme views, but I can say firsthand that I was treated somewhat differently, probably because I am the only son among five sisters, or maybe what I do not know, which presumably could have been designed by society.

 

 

The Girl Child

  In the dream I had, I was surrounded by people of different ages and sizes holding hands as I walked toward each of them in turn (I can't remember exactly what I said to them). I came to a little girl who handed me something like a scroll and simply said, "Understanding the power of a girl child." I woke up very tense. I felt an immense burden inside of me and began to ponder and dig into the past, hoping for a correlation of events or circumstances to the unusual dream I had. Afterward, I began to research, this time on the subject of the "girl child." I read books, talked to many people, and, after due consultations, wrote a blog on the same topic, Understanding The Power Of A Girl Child. I wrote succinctly about the influence and misrepresentations of society on the girl child, the role of the family, and the impact the girl child can have on society.

After writing the blog, I was still not satisfied; I felt that I could do more. I didn't have a lot of financial resources, so unfortunately, I thought less about donating to projects and institutions. I started surfing the internet to connect with a community of people, especially one dominated by women, who were honest and loving in their approach to the struggle for equality so that I could learn from their experiences and better understand how they felt and what they believed should be done to establish equality. I had the privilege of connecting with Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, the project director of The Girl Child and Her Long Walk to Freedom, who I spoke with briefly and was sure I was in the right place.

It never occurred to me that one day I would be striving for fairness and advocating equality. It made little sense to me, even though my sisters are potential victims of this threat. I jokingly approached some of my peers and was amazed to hear their views on the role of women in the family and society. I had no such views, even though I disagreed with equality. Sometimes, after a conversation with a male colleague, I get confused, and begin to question myself. Part of me wants to believe that this could simply be the order of nature that some powerful women are trying to distort, and the other part of me sees it from a different angle, where countless girl children have been unfortunate enough to be part of a society that has decimated their potential and with uncanny deception constructed a subordinate role for them in society. I have a penchant for getting to the bottom of problems that I believe will benefit life and society. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to understand why men have such perceptions of women and what other factors may have contributed to them. 

 

Equality

After a private evaluation of society, I realized that the difference between men and women, whether it is physical characteristics or a supposed role in society, does not justify the superiority of one sex but rather a balance perfectly suited to solve social and life problems. I have also come to understand that the prevalence of inequality is predicated on the belief that one gender is more important than the other. This is a fallacy and should not be tolerated as a view.

I consider our society to be a one that is content with the role that women have been given. Unfortunately, our sisters, wives, and mothers have to accept this inequitable arrangement until viable measures are put in place to curb this societal menace. I honestly look forward to a society where no woman would consider herself powerless in any situation because she is not a man. I look forward to a society where competence, not gender, is the prerequisite for selection and appointment to positions. This is a society that must emerge to eliminate inequality and prevent the unborn girl child from coming into a society of deprivation and oppression.