Shafa Fathimath

I am 19 years old and I come from one of the smallest island nations in the world, the Maldives. I have a brother, three years older than me and an identical twin sister. I remember times when we did not have a house to live, could not afford some books to study and had a piece of papaya for every meal. However, we were brought up by a single mother, who stained every nerve to get us what we wanted and taught us to appreciate what we had. In the islands, it is a traditional belief that women are expected to do the house chores and take care of kids at home while men work and earn to make a living. But I learnt it does not necessarily have to be as mentioned since I have seen our mother being our father too. Although our country is considered to be a 100% Muslim country, it is concerning that a large number of girls face harassment from men who claim to ‘respect’ women. Personally, my sister and I faced some situations where we felt unsafe and felt we would be taken advantage of. However, the fear did not stop us from raising our voice and apparently that helped a few more girls who went through the same, to speak up and fight for their rights. I appreciate the fact that my country tries to provide education equally for men and women. Therefore, when I got a scholarship to pursue higher education in a country abroad, which was once just a dream that I never thought would come true, I was not expecting negative views from my society such like, “you are a girl, stay at home”, “women are not allowed to travel alone,” or “you should get married first!” I strongly believe that women can be independent, free to be their own heroes, and should never step down from what we want to achieve, just because we are women!