Observe the picture!

Describe it to yourself by picking what is obvious!

In case you didn´t notice, let me explain it. You can see men and women standing next to each other, bathing under the same waterfall but separated. Men are bare-chested whereas women are all covered.

Is this picture a metaphor of the society we live in today?

I captured this image in India, a country where trains have specific coaches for women, where women cannot be alone in certain areas and where there are number of violations of their rights, not to mention crimes. India is still a male dominated society, where women are often seen as subordinated and inferior to men.  And I am afraid this does not happen only in India. As my friend would say, we as women are privileged (or not) for being born in certain countries. That never felt right to me but it is the reality.

What is that thin line that separates men from women as depicted in this picture? What does it mean to be a woman in certain countries in the 21st century? Which kind of challenges do women face? What aspirations do they have? And more importantly, which aspirations can they not have?

What does it mean to be a woman?

For a long time in my life, gender inequality didn’t exist as a concept. It was just a feeling of unease that I felt about several aspects of my life. A feeling that I always interpreted as me being wrong.

Later on though, I understood that such a feeling was the result of a cultural heritage passed on to me by past generations and society. This uneasiness with our label, on the other hand, is a common feeling among women but it is very hard to put into words and share with others.

By sharing photographic stories, Voices Of Women intends to showcase how women across the world live, showing it too you through their eyes and their personal hardships. My goal is to humanize the concept of ‘woman’, by giving a face and name to gender inequality issues.

Hopefully, these women’s stories will also make you reflect about your own experience as a human being. By reading it, you as a woman will understand that we have more in common than we think.

Ultimately, Voices of Women will become a network of women and men who understand that we must work together for a society that gives women the right to choose instead of telling them what to do.