This Article is in support of the #ChooseToChallenge Campaign by Hashnode

Earlier this week I was listening to my local radio station show about the challenges women face in our society. At first I was like we are in the 21st century, everybody should be treated equal, but the story that came up next was heartbreaking 💔 listening to that mom, the hero she is explain the kind of mistreatment she faced in the hands of her husband. What hurt the most is that she was also mistreated by other women for not following the culture beliefs of their community.
In summary she was forced to do the following:

• She was forcefully circumcised
• Beaten for not following her husband's religion
• Threatened if she ever reported it to the police
• Raped in front of her children by the husband
• Denied food
• Through the regular beating she broke both her legs and hand
• Denied freedom to worship

She faced a lot of mistreatment before escaping and she has not been able to get justice till date, All the people who did the unforgivable stuff to her are walking free. This needs to stop !!

At that moment, listening to her cry over the radio while she narrated her story was the most painful one, everybody around me changed their mood to a sympathizing one. I wish I had power to step in and help the lady, at the moment I felt helpless & powerless I am a nobody, I couldn't do nothing 😢.

But later that evening as I was going through my computer I came across a post by Edidiong Asikpo and other developers too in the movement #ChooseToChallenge. Each and every one of the articles I have read fight different form of women mistreating, biasness, inequality, sexist joke on women and so on the list is endless. So I decided to join in the campaign and lend my voice.

As Luiz Bispo says: Equality means a humility, compassion, hope and justice. It is a system in which humans live loving and respective each other without any sort of bias.

At the moment of the listening I was helpless but after finding about the #ChooseToChallenge, I thought why not share the story and help empower women in support of each other. We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality in our society and help stop it.

Now, as we celebrate International Women’s Day this year, I support and stand with everybody lending their voice to #ChooseToChallenge movement:

I #ChooseToChallenge 🙋‍♂️:

• Inequality in our society against women.
• Discrimination in the workplace against women.
• Those who do not appreciate effort of women.
• Those who think women have no say at all.

I we choose to challenge this and other beliefs I believe we will create a world everybody enjoys to live in