Saturday, March 15, 2008

Oration ko: Discrimination of Women @ 3/15/2008 06:13:00 PM

Let me share with you a quote that I’ve read, “God created women from men, but not from his foot to be stepped on, not from his head for him to be superior, but under his arms to be protected, close to his heart to be loved and most importantly, from his side, to be equal.

Each day, women all over the world strive to change that common thought in our minds that seems so permanent- the inferiority of women to men.

Even before we were even born, this issue had been around centuries ago. Our ways of living prevented women to educate themselves and be equal to whatever men can do. These beliefs that men are truly superior degraded us women, ranked our humanity and basically took away our rights.

Most of the Filipino families then do not send their daughters to school because of the thought that women would only marry, and they were only for household and taking care of their children. Because of this, some women lose their privileges to educate themselves in schools. And the result; another problem- illiteracy.

People should give a woman a chance to let the world see her God-given potential and must not deprive her of her rights to do whatever she needs and wants to do. People must not dictate how a woman should live her life because typically, she lives it for her family and her children and sometimes she is even forced into prostitution just to keep her life together.

It is definitely unfair for the world to treat women this way. These women are the most vulnerable to abuse. Their rights are violated and at most times, they are the ones being raped and maltreated.

But those women cannot do anything about this, can’t they? They are deprived of their right to say something to the government. But we, the ones that have the opportunity to utter those complaints should be the ones responsible to voice out the words that needs to be heard by the public. We have the chance in our hands and all it takes is a voice, a voice that would tell them about these women, who risked their lives just to continue and fight for what had been their greatest battle yet.

If we look at ourselves, men and women, we do not have any differences between us. Look around us and you will see that men and women are alike, working together side by side making our world a better place.

Women’s rights are now being fought for and fortunately, it has been an amazing journey so far; though we know that somewhere, somehow, some women are still being deprived of these rights and know that we must continue fighting for it; for their right and for their dignity. Our battle hasn’t ended yet. We must prove to the world that we can stand on our own feet, that we can live independently and that we can be equal with men.

Now’s the time to stop the silence and spread our words to the world, give our say to the government and protect women’s rights; let’s start making that change.

A change that every female individual aspires, a change that I aspire, a change where we can all benefit from and a change that we all want to see someday.

Let me leave you with the words spoken by Hillary Clinton at Beijing, China September 5, 1995. “As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace around the world - as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled and subjected to violence in and out of their homes - the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.”

I have a dream, a goal. And that is to free the world from discrimination. Neglect our differences and change our ways of living. And maybe through that, the peaceful, prosperous world we aspire for can now be realized.

Thank you very much.

ps. success! :) natapos ndin!