Rickshaw Races and Gender Equality...all in a day's work

An article from the school newspaper, written by yours truly:

On Friday, Feb. 7, 2014, four enthusiastic CTS teachers tried their hands at driving a rickshaw in the Second Annual Rickshaw Relay put on by the Canadian High Commission in support of the Acid Survivors Foundation. There were 24 teams participating in the race and each team got to race twice. Ms. Pidduck, Ms. Isaak, Ms. Matharoo, and Mr. Tam came up with the team name "I'd Tam That" in reference to Mr. Tam's tendency to take pictures of everything, which we now call "tamming it up" and cameras are no longer cameras but "tamming devices." 

Showing off our home made team shirts

Off to a good start...ish

Each leg of the race we gained more passengers

Doing the Queen wave...because we were going parade speed.

We lost our first race by a lot because we were all nervous and it was our first time driving a rickshaw, for the second race, Ms. Matharoo came up with the brilliant strategy to "just go faster" and it worked! We did much better than the first race, unfortunately, the other team had a similar strategy and proved to be much more efficient at it. 

Coming across the finish line in style

The race ended in the evening with a gala dinner where we were able to learn more about the Acid Survivors Foundation which the event was supporting. Acid violence is a form of gender-based violence that continues to affect the lives of many girls and women who are survivors of acid violence. These women have shown incredible courage in the face of adversity and two young girls who were survivors danced for us at the gala dinner and shared a bit of their story.

Ms. Matharoo and I with two young girls who are acid survivors and workers from ASF at the Gala Dinner.

The Acid Survivors Foundation continues to support victims of acid violence by providing reconstructive surgery as well as psychological counseling. ASF also promotes advocacy of the issue of gender inequality in order to reduce the number of acid violence cases each year. We learned a lot about this incredibly important organization and hope to continue to support the cause of reducing violence against women in Bangladesh and throughout the world. 

End of news article.

Let's talk about acid violence candidly now. So let's say you are born a girl, that's enough of a reason for a father to throw acid on you, or even "feed" it to you as an infant. Or say you refuse a marriage proposal or there's a dowry dispute between families, again, as a young girl, you would have acid thrown on you for this. And here's my favorite reason: land disputes. If a father is in a land dispute with another man, the other man is perfectly justified in taking out his anger at the father by throwing acid on the face of his daughter. Is it just me? Or is there something seriously flawed in all of this "logic"? 

I wish gender equality was a thing that actually existed in the world, because let's face it, that's the root of all of this violence. If men actually saw women as human beings, as people with value, they wouldn't be able to treat them so horrifically. If men in this country saw me as a person, and not as exposed knees and legs, they wouldn't have harassed me this morning while I was walking to school in a dress. If men all over the world saw women as intelligent individuals with freedom of choice, they wouldn't drug their drinks or lie and manipulate to get into bed with them. 

As a woman, I am appalled at how we are treated across the globe because of our gender. And I know that I am a fortunate woman to have grown up in a country that allows me the freedom to wear whatever I want (to an extent) and act however I want (to an extent) and be free from harassment (to an extent).  I am fortunate that if I am harassed in Canada, I have resources available to me to press charges, to seek counseling, and to find a safe place. I am especially fortunate to have a father, brother, and many male friends who see me as a person first and understand the true meaning of equality and respect. I will, however, continue to have conversations on this topic and advocate for women's rights because it's only through education and personal experience that minds and hearts can actually be changed.