Gulf News

Men and women should be celebrated equally

- By Lamiya Siraj The reader is a former banker and resident of Abu Dhabi.

We all are living in the 21st century. People have started understand­ing equality in a broader sense. People understand the importance of equality of people’s rights on all fronts. Education with knowledge is helping to narrow these difference­s. We are able to respect each other.

How can we say that we are ‘ignoring men’s issues?’

It has taken us centuries to fight this discrimina­tion. Still we are not able to make a 100 per cent difference. I myself have faced discrimina­tion many times when I drive. While living in the UAE for the past 11 years, I have come across a few men who overtake women drivers on the road. When they see women driving they immediatel­y break the rules because they assume that ‘they cannot drive’. Some men still can’t digest the fact that women drive all around the world. Some male drivers smile and acknowledg­e women drivers on the road and show them some respect.

It’s not about whose issues need more attention, whether male or female. We are all human after all and deserve the same platform to think, grow and resolve problems. Since we are human, we are full of emotions. We all have gone through some trauma or stress in life. Why do we divide our problems based on gender? Or who is stronger?

Issues like suicides and depression affect us all. Of course, there are some problems that mostly affect one particular section of society, like breast cancer, female genital mutilation, prostate cancer, and awareness is being provided on such issues. There are many bodies in the form of clubs available to support such issues. Problems need to be highlighte­d and exposure should be given to all. People need to challenge such situations and learn to tackle them. There are classic examples of men and women working together in various fields like politics, journalism, acting, banking, science and more where genders are valued and not discrimina­ted against.

I don’t believe in one particular day, to celebrate Internatio­nal Man’s Day, Woman’s Day, Father’s Day and other such events we indulge in. We don’t need one particular day to celebrate people! Every day is a celebratio­n if we value each other properly. We have this precious gift called ‘life’, which we need to live and cherish, every day of our lives.

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