© picture-alliance/AP Photo/A. Qadri

The bitter truth can be found in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. I am a woman and I know for sure how far our rights are protected. I understand the problems that could come with our rights but we deserve dignity, respect and to be treated with love. We have the right to fight for change and not be discriminated because of it. It is a pity that in many countries boundaries have been set up against women. But we must not allow ourselves to be restricted. All human beings are equal. Every person has dignity and deserves to be treated equally and respected.

Girls walk in front of crosses which are symbols for the killing of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Women have to be treated as equal to men. We have legal rights to develop ourselves and to be heard by the governments which are supposed to defend our rights. This has been done by several organizations that fight for the rights of Mexican women who were raped and beaten, for example “Camino de olvido” (the forgotten way). We have the right to be heard by the Mexican government and the officials responsible for supporting women’s rights. But that is not always the case.

What kind of a world is it, where we live in a society but do not have any value? I am a citizen of this world and I believe that I have the same rights as men to fight for my future, to fight for the same payment and for a better future for my children. If women do not have the chance to have the same payment for the same work, we will not have the chance to improve our financial situation and our home.

No woman should be discriminated in any type of work anymore. We deserve respect in our job. The reality is many women in some countries do not get the same amount of money as their male colleagues for the same work, for example in Germany. Is it possible that women have less value than men? According to official documents such as German Constitution, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union etc., every human being has the right to get education and this has to be guaranteed. Apart from that women also have the right to choose their own husband.

Unfortunatelly in some Middle Eastern countries women are not even allowed to drive cars or motorcycles. They are also not allowed to develop themselves, and not allowed to choose their own husband. We are human beings and we have the right to decide our own destiny. Nobody can be forced to love or marry somebody they do not like. And we are not slaves, our feelings have to respected.

Education is the foundation of everything and for all of us in the global systems of human development. Why is it that some men do not understand that it cannot be done with violence? I think it is not hard to comprehend.

We can still change this world, and we can still respect each other. For those men who are gentlemen and whose hearts are good, we wish their wives, girl friends and sisters all the best.

Author: Carmen Aguilera García

Editor: Marjory Linardy, Grahame Lucas

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