digital divide network - article database

I have been reading news about the struggle for women's suffrage and on-going suffering from abusive treatments. As I read these stories – every time I read these stories in fact – I weep from sadness. I weep, not so much because they are sad stories, though all are, it is because I feel these women’s strength and courage amidst them. I feel my own stories in theirs, although I was not nearly subjected to the level of torture the women are experiencing these days. I have had the experience of growing up as a girl that was invisible, no matter how much knowledge I gained to be treated equal to men; I just did not matter or feel like I belong to the broader society, I was not valued for the gifts I could offer as a woman. I remember how much I used to hear from my mom and the world around me, “Be like a man.” I even used to dream of walking under a rainbow and become a man, as that was a myth I had heard.

So, shouldn't the number one focus there be to secure safety and equality for women, since our hope for change is for mothers to reclaim their rights to apply their natural gifts in raising their children with love and kindness? Sadly, new generations continue to be raised by those who believe in male-dominated programs based on hatred and aggression, passed down through ancestral lineage. I can’t help but wonder, how they could torture the very women that brought them into this world, and forget that these women will continue to birth their future generations? I saw first-hand how little value was given to women in their lives, as I heard first-hand examples of men trading women for their cows because they believed the cows could produce the food they survived with. So sad!

I try to analyze what may have caused the never-ending abuse women are subjected to. In any society that suffers from continuous primitive aggression, the fundamental cause is the up-bringing of individuals in dysfunctional settings, from birth, to early childhood, through adolescence and later on in adulthood. These patterns are passed-on through many generations that never chose to break the cycle of disrespect for individual value. This becomes the way of life, and both men and women end-up so used to them, that they don’t believe there is anything wrong. It’s like when we gets so sick, suffering from such pain that we forget what it feels like if we re-gain our health – it becomes our survival tool. Right from birth, the children are deprived from the joy of their magical world, to the point that the child grows up numb and vulnerable to the ways of dysfunctional social norms. This is what we are dealing with at this point. How do we break this cycle that keeps leading us to abyss of darkness?

We certainly want the women to have the right to vote, but will this stop them from getting beaten up to death once they return to their homes? What can we do to stop the madness, while breaking the generational cycle of directing the male dominated social anger and aggression toward women? Is there a way that we can put an end to the current lack of respect and value toward women? Then, what is required to shift the dysfunctional ways of life that keep spreading like cancer, genetically and across the social body?

These are questions that need to be addressed first and foremost, before fighting for gain of power and wealth that are mentally driven, and not guided by the heart. This may be a woman’s point of view, but as the observer of what is going on there, I believe we can only stop these inhumane treatments of our sisters and mothers by drastic measures beyond current efforts to stop them. We certainly need to take strong action against those that torture the women, while finding means to prevent the continuation of these behaviors from leaking down our future generations.

Khaleda Sallade is the author of “I Woman Unveiled.” The book is an inspirational story of awakening to one’s true nature. The message of the book is, “I know myself through my stories.” Khaleda believes that we all journey through life in search of love, even when we operate with lack of it, because our will to choose is given to us out of unconditional love by that force that moves us. This is just the paradoxical nature of our journeys, as all things will ultimately converge toward Love. With this belief, she shares how all her life experiences converged to her finding her own love – her true nature.

The book provides the reader a roadmap to his or her own inner healing and truth. Her message of humility and Love will touch the heart of every reader, regardless of gender, race, culture and place of origin, because she speaks through the voice of her soul as the observer and creator of her stories. She takes the reader through a moving and intimate journey of her event-filled life beginning with her childhood in a dangerous and violent Afghanistan, escaping into Pakistan and ultimately arriving in the U.S. as a political refugee. She shares her healing journey as she fought to hold onto her life during a very long, intense ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ initiated by a massive nervous breakdown, which ultimately led to the insight that she had chosen this life path and all of its trauma and hardship, in order to know her unique divine nature and purpose.


Author Bio:

Khaleda is an Afghan American who grew up in Afghanistan and Rochester, NY. She currently lives in Pittsford, NY, with her husband and two beautiful children. Although she was trained to serve as an engineer and business manager, through her own journey of healing and self-discovery. To deepen her knowledge as a spiritual guide, she is pursuing a Doctor of Divinity in Holistic Theology and is founder of Eternal Lightness LLC which offers spiritual coaching and healing. She can be reached through: Books by Women of Afghanistan and <a href="http://www.eternallightness.com/about-us/">Trauma Healing Books</a>