The Dawn Will Come Through Us

From the moment we are old enough to understand the world, we are told to dream. To imagine. To strive for a future that reflects our deepest desires. But for women, dreaming has always been an act of rebellion. To dream and then dare to chase those dreams is a battle waged against history, tradition, and deeply ingrained societal norms. Imagining a world of true gender equality often feels as implausible as expecting a peanut from a pea pod.

A gender-equal world would be one free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination - a world that values diversity, equity and inclusion. A world where being different is not a liability but a celebration. This is the world we must forge, and the theme of International Women’s Day 2025 - #AccelerateAction - calls for nothing less.

For more than a hundred years, International Women’s Day (IWD) has been a global touchstone in the fight for gender parity. Yet, a century later, the progress remains frustratingly slow. Since its inception in 1911, IWD has belonged to those who believe in women’s equality. It has urged us to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness about discrimination, and take meaningful action toward parity. And yet, year after year, the same conversations persist. The same obstacles remain.

If IWD is to be more than a token gesture, it must unsettle us. It must prod at our social consciousness, forcing us to rethink, react, and, most importantly, act. Otherwise, it becomes an exercise in futility, burning no social calories and leaving the body of our society malnourished in its civic obligations.

The struggle for women’s empowerment is not just about breaking glass ceilings but about dismantling the walls that confine women in every aspect of their lives. Some women find contentment in domesticity, while others carve paths in boardrooms and battlefields. Yet, regardless of their choices, their space is never truly their own. Society dictates its terms, imposing checklists, expectations and relentless scrutiny. The impediments to accelerating action toward equality begin here - in the way a woman is either deified or diminished, rarely recognized simply as an individual.

A man who nurtures and cares for his children is celebrated as an anomaly, a shining example of fatherhood. A woman who does the same is simply fulfilling her duty. Why? Why is caregiving a feminine expectation but an exceptional trait in men? Why must women’s identities be tethered to their responsibilities? It is high time we evaluate individuals not by gendered roles but by their humanity, their choices, and their aspirations.

Even nature seems complicit in this inequity, bestowing upon women the power of birth yet burdening them with the entirety of caregiving. What if women stopped giving birth? Stopped building families? Societies panic at declining birth rates, attributing them to women’s empowerment, as if liberation itself is the enemy. But this is not a crisis; it is a conscious evolution. It is a shift away from patriarchal conditioning toward individual autonomy. The real crisis is not declining birth rates but the inability to respect a woman’s right to choose her own destiny.

In Rockstar, a film by Imtiaz Ali, the protagonist sings Sadda Haq, Aithe Rakh! (My right, give it to me here!). This should be the anthem of every woman who has been told she must fit into predefined moulds. True empowerment is not about allowances but absolute autonomy. A woman should decide what she wants to be, wear, eat or dream. Anything less is a compromise.

The remedy? Constitutional and democratic empowerment. Legal frameworks must reinforce women’s rights, and society must implement them in spirit, not just in statute. Families, institutions and governments must stop being the enforcers of oppression and become the facilitators of liberation. These very entities that have historically curtailed women’s rights must now be the agents of her empowerment.

A society’s moral compass is measured by the status of its women. True progress will come not when we celebrate token achievements but when we count the silences, the injustices, the neglect. Only then can we truly empower women. The #AccelerateAction theme for IWD 2025 is not just a slogan; it is a call to arms. We have been waiting for too long. But as the Urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi once wrote, Woh Subah Kabhi Toh Aayegi (‘That dawn will come someday’). Perhaps, if we act decisively, it will not be an eventuality but an inevitability. Woh Subah Humein Se Aayegi (‘That dawn will come through us’)  Us, means you and me, men and women, both can together make this change possible.

(The author is an academician, columnist, historian and a strong voice on Gender and Human Rights. Views personal.)