Dear Society,
How are you? Where do you live? I do not have your address to send this letter to. So here I am, writing this open letter—out of desperation, out of hope—that it will somehow reach you. I have moved from place to place searching for you, but I never found you. All I discovered were the imprints you left behind, etched into the minds and bodies of men and women alike. Shadows of those imprints linger even in children, embedded just as plastic has now been found in a child's DNA. The more I search for you, the more I realize that you are not a singular entity but a construct made up of beliefs, traditions, and norms that govern us without our conscious consent.
I have tried to understand you—through myself and through all the men and women I meet, through those I love and those I am bound to by the weight of societal relationships. Relationships entangled in unspoken, illegitimate expectations. You cross all boundaries in the name of love, enforcing an obligatory loyalty membership where love is not the pillar—where material wealth, status, and societal approval hold more weight than mutual respect, care, or kindness. Trust is easily misplaced, character assassinated at the drop of a hat, and reputations tarnished at will. The labels you have assigned to men and women dictate how they should exist, interact, and be perceived. These labels overshadow the individuals themselves, imposing restrictions, limitations, and expectations that suppress authentic self-expression. I wonder—when did these labels become more important than the human beings who bear them? And where are you when the people living under the weight of these labels need rescuing? Why do you remain silent in moments of suffering? Why is there such a stark difference in the realities lived by men and women under your rule? Why are we viewed through such different lenses? Why do we even have to speak about equality? If equality must be spoken about, it means it was never there to begin with.
If men and women together create society, why is it that one dictates while the other follows? Why is the creator—woman, by nature—seen as meek and weak? Society, tell me, when did men gain autonomy over women? Not just in India, but across the world? How and when did we shift from matriarchy to patriarchy? Why must women now fight for rights that should have been theirs all along?
How did we get here, Society? And more importantly—where do we go from here?
I do not write to you with mere frustration but with a yearning for dialogue. A yearning to understand how we unmake what has been made, how we return to a world where the human being is valued over the label, where love is not conditional upon material success, and where both men and women walk together, neither leading nor following, but simply being.
Will you answer me, Society? Or will you continue to remain invisible, hiding behind the very structures that divide us?
This letter is only the beginning. In the coming letters, I will continue to unravel these questions, tracing the imprints left upon us and seeking answers that have long been silenced.
Love,
Afrah Futun
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