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For her…Woman is this mysterious creature that since its existence has puzzled men and has made themdebate among themselves its rightful place in society. It’s been said that women are too delicateand weak, therefore they are unable to depend on themselves; they are extremely emotional andoversensitive and for this reason, it is dangerous to give them decision-making roles; they havesmaller brains which makes them unintelligent and hence they are in no position to lead. Thesetheories and assumptions that have kept popping up since the creation of man are not so hardto fathom when they are made by men. It is normal and only natural for men to be scared of theopposite sex sharing the power with them. But having women promoting these ideas is what isreally dragging us down and causing all the problems. In fact, these theories and ideas would haveno weight whatsoever if no woman believed in them.We know that throughout history women have fought for equality, that women have beenoppressed by men and denied their rights. We all know that, no need to dwell on it. The realquestion is what have the rest of the women been doing while their minority mothers, sisters anddaughters have been fighting for their rights? The answer is, most of them have been destroyingtheir work. Shocking? It is true. When we say that society is unfair to women, wealways tend to forget that half of society is made up of women. As a matterof fact, the most influential part of how society thinks is women. It is awoman who is a mother; the mother is the closest parent to the childmost of the time, and it is she who shapes most of her children’s ideasand beliefs, not only based on what she says, but on what she does.Whenever a mother treats her male children differently than herfemale children, whether by giving more freedom to her boys orgiving less power to her girls, she is planting a clear idea in theirheads of what each gender’s place in society is supposed to be, andit all starts with the ‘my boy will grow up to be the best doctor inthe world, and my beautiful girl will grow up to marry the best doctorin the world’ cliché that dreaming mothers usually love to sharewith their children over and over throughout their childhood. Andwhenever a woman accepts being stepped on and walked over becauseshe believes women must sacrifice their lives to get the blessing of theirsociety, she is taking the work of her fellow women who are fighting day andnight for their rights two steps back.Dear mother, sister and daughter, since the main reason most of you are afraid ofclaiming your place in society, which is next to men and not behind them, is because you think youare too weak to deserve it, that your mission on this planet is to please men, and that you havenothing else to offer to the world but your body; 50/Fifty dedicates this spring issue to all ofyou to show you how women from all kinds of backgrounds have been breaking barriersthroughout the ages to lead the life they want. To make you understand that noone will respect or believe in you if you don’t respect and believe in yourself.You have everything to make the world a better place; don’t waste yourtime on earth blaming your miserable life on men when you have thechoice to fix it yourself.Love, 50/Fifty TeamAziza El KoleiE-mail: eaziza@50fifty-dz.com