Women on fire

I am alive, and I am healthy. 

I have a job. 

I have food every day. 

I have a roof over my head wherever I go.

I was blessed with education. 

I have clean water coming out of the tab. 

I can travel wherever I choose to. 

I have time and space to take care of my mind and body. 

I am surrounded by love from dogs and humans. 

I am a free woman and not „owned“ by a man or family. 

I make my own choices within the loving support of my partner. 

I am blessed, and it’s so important to pay attention and appreciate this. Often, I catch myself taking things like food, a safe  place to sleep and nice people around as totally granted. Then, when I look at the world around me, I realize: it’s not. Especially in countries like Nepal, I see women living a life in captivity. Captured by their families and husbands, they never ever get the chance to discover who they truly are within their feminine power. Completely dependent on the men as the caretaker, they never even got close to education and self-determination. Freedom is nothing that will ever be a part of their life. For them, having food and a roof over the head every day means hard work. Going to the field, planting, harvesting, watering, surviving. The world they are living in is harsh, and real love and affection is rare. They live together in social associations which are highly supportive but don’t hold much space for intimacy. There is no travel because there is no education. No job that would bring more than covering the needs for basic survival. No freedom to go wherever they want.

Facing that allows me to appreciate what I have every day a little more. My gratitude grounds me into presence, into the now, and allows me to see myself as what I am: a woman who was incredibly lucky to be born in Germany. 

And that’s where it starts not to be fair. Where cultural differences, in between the west and the east, take away the fundamental right for the same starting point for every person. I am not any different from girls in Third World countries, I am just lucky to hold another passport. Where education, health, social security, equal pay and fundamental human rights are taken aside because one is female, not male. Where the simple fact that a woman is on her moon cycle banishes her out of her own kitchen for days and puts her into a position of shame. Where a simple smile to a man who’s not her husband pours gossip over her for weeks. Where a woman doesn’t have a single word about what’s going to happen in her life. Where men take over, either the father, brother, or the husband to determine in advance what direction her life is going to take. 

Ironically, the girls in Nepal don’t even consider this to be unfair. It’s just normal because everybody does it and always did it. No one’s questioning what’s going on. As it is normal in so many other cultures for girls to be sold, raped, owned and held small.

I am obviously not only talking about Nepal here. I am talking about many African countries I travelled to, I am talking about parts of Mexico and South America, and I am even talking about friends here in Germany. I am talking about so many situations I witnessed, all over the world, where girls and women are overpowered by the other sex. But is it the right way to fight back in the same way women were treated in the past? Fighting anger with anger? Hurt with hurt? Creating pain where pain was created? 

I don’t think so. I think the feminine already has everything inside that it needs to guide men in the right direction. Because repression and imbalance are not created by women acting wrong, it is created by thousands of years of telling men that they are the dominant sex, that they are the leaders, and that they are in power. 

Fight back is not the way, using the nurturing side of the feminine to educate and create consciousness is the way leading towards change. 

They are not our enemies, and it’s not their fault. Many cultures just simply support unconsciousness. Re-education using the gift of love creates space for free choices and free will. 

What we can do? 

Hold space for those who don’t know any better.

Gently introduce truth and different perspectives to this who suffer and who create suffering. 

Act according to the principles of equality in our everyday life and speak up, not remain silent, if we see inequity. 

Face the fact that not everything is okay but we are here to move into the direction of more okayness.

Support free speech, free choice and freedom all the way.

With freedom comes love.