being qaali

Today is International Women’s Day. A day to recognise and celebrate the achievements and roles of women all over the world…but also a day to remind us of the milestones that we are yet to reach in many parts of the world.Women have always been the pinnacle to every single part of my life. From the women who raised me, the ones who have mentored me, to the sisterhood that I have fostered with my amazing friends; women run the world!

Women are like water. Each molecule that makes them adapts so effortlessly to their surroundings, with no noise. They not only bear and give life but sustain it. They are the saving grace we find solace in, they are the warmth that our soul will always yearn for, they are the hearts that ours are most aligned with for we have heart them beat from the inside.

There’s a Somali proverb that says:

Haween la’aani waa hoy la’aan // Where there are no women, there is no home

Personally there is nothing truer than this.

Empowering young girls gives them that backbone to play with the odds that they are given and come out winning. To dream, not in line with what society tells you, but what your heart does is what I pray for all girls. To be part of a world that stands behind them when they decide to speak up against their oppressors and change their lives. We are not on this Earth to save people, but to make sure that we hold people in power accountable to serving our fellow mankind right. I pray that our future is one where both halves get to sit at a table equally, lead side by side and respect one another.

It’s International Women’s Day and in the words of Audre Lorde “Women are powerful and dangerous” and despite the odds we’re awesome!