Silence is powerful

I come from a culture where women (mostly) remain silent. For centuries they are about following a man in their lives. As a child their father, as an adult, their husband and as a senior, their kids. Few have tried to fight the norm and voice their opinion and do extraordinary things, but even now, so many live under the shadows of a forced silence.

I am lucky to be born to parents who appreciate my sense of opinion. I was always the rebellious girl in the family, who never did what a girl should have done. I left when I wanted to, to be somewhere where my voice would be heard. Where I did not have to be silent. Where I could talk and express.

And now when I can talk all I want, raise my voice all I need, I understand how silence can be powerful. Sometimes, you are heard more when you don’t say anything instead of talking out all you want. Sometimes, you need to be silent to let people know that it’s your choice, and not an imposition. Silence makes you stronger, it makes you patient, it makes you powerful inside. It makes you less angry and gives you more time to know what you would want to say, if you had to say it.

Voicing one’s opinion is indeed very important, and when women do not get to do it, it is oppression. But the silence I am talking about has made women stronger as humans over centuries. It is said they are more emotional, but they are also emotionally stronger than men, and that is because they can remain silent and get stronger.

I am not a feminist and I am surrounded by women who never saw any differentiation based on their gender. But as I am growing up I see where I was, and where I have come being a women, without being silent, and knowing now how silence is powerful.