Chamss Eddouha El Gouirti, 17, Touanate

The power of a woman

My community is filled with strong women. Khadija, my aunt, happens to be one of them. She might even be the strongest. She inspires me. She makes me believe in myself and be strong when everything seems to be going wrong. Her smile gives me power, and she always tells me, “Stay positive even when your whole world is falling apart.”

Life has knocked her down a few times, and showed her things she never wanted to see. She experienced sadness and failure, but one thing is for sure: Khadija always gets back

up.

She spent her childhood in a small village, but went to school in a city far away from her family. She felt lonely, frustrated, and anxious. When she got her baccalaureate degree, she suffered from a disease which made her hair fall out and caused her psychological trauma. Now she doesn’t have eyebrows or eyelashes or any hair at all, but I still see her as my beautiful role model with her blue eyes. There was no effective treatment to stop this sickness. Khadija accepted her new shape, but society didn’t. She was harassed, was subject to insults, was treated mercilessly, and she lost a lot of her friends because of something she didn’t want or choose.

At the age of 23, after studying in university, my aunt worked in a cabling company in Tangier and after in another city called Bouznika where she met her husband who originally seemed open-minded. He was a personal guard. She thought she would live the perfect love story, but after marriage the story of torment began.

At the age of 29, she started taking medicine to make her hair grow again, but it affected her eyesight, so she stopped the treatment. After three years of marriage, she become

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pregnant, but sadly her baby was stillborn. One year later, she gave birth of a new baby, a little moon with yellow hair like sunshine, named Mohammed Rabie.

At work, my aunt faced many problems. She was blackmailed. Her boss made her choose between doing dishonest things or being fired, and she was sexually harassed. So she no longer worked in that company, which eventually went bankrupt.

Then, she gave birth to her second child with green eyes like emerald, Saad. During this time, my aunt worked in a private school to save her family because her husband’s wages were not enough. This man was not much of a husband. He was abusive and insulted her for no reason. He even forced her to resign only to prove his manliness and power that he never possessed. Their financial situation became too weak. They didn’t have enough money to pay rent or bills, so they moved to live with her husband’s brothers at a house without electricity, without water to drink, and without happiness.

My aunt was patient for her little angels so she hid those problems from her family, but the situation worsened. That unjust man began to accuse her of betrayal. He even expressed doubts about his young son and his wife’s faithfulness in addition to calling her “bald,” “good-for-nothing,” “whore,” and even threatening her with knife. A weak man can’t love a strong woman.

As a result, the children and their mother suffered mentally and psychologically. Her smile disappeared, and she forgot the taste of joy. That’s why my aunt decided to escape this scorn. On the first night of Ramadan, she took her sons to her family’s home where she decided to divorce that psychopathic man.

Indeed, she broke the handcuffs of injustice and started a new happy life with her children. Now she works as a teacher and lives in bliss with her sons. Saad is 6-years-old, and Mohammed Rabie is 8. Saad is the best student in his class , but Mohammed Rabie

is still recovering from the trauma and suffering.

My aunt is a woman who is strong enough to face it all. A woman who has confronted all the challenges in life on her own, picked herself back up and wiped her own tears. She rose above and grew from things that were meant to break her. She became

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stronger than she seems, braver than she believes, smarter than she thinks, and she is loved more than she will ever know.

I adore talking with her. She makes me feel capable of facing the word. I have learned so much from her like taking time to get to know myself and to know exactly what I want in life, being honest and respecting others who deserve it, realizing that nothing is perfect but being proud of myself with all my imperfections nonetheless, knowing my worth and not acting kindly towards those who hurt me with their words or actions, and eventually being with the right man who respects me and loves me and looks at me like a woman with ideas and ambition, not as a mere body fit only for reproduction.

At last, I want to tell Khadija this: you’re a diamond, dear. No one can break you. And I want to tell all the woman of the world: much love, much respect. Remember who you are, and show the universe what you can do.

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