Marina
One night while on Gili Air, a relaxed Muslim island, we went to an all night dance party at our favorite bar. The dance floor was lined with a slew of local men, aged 12 and up. The only women were tourists, except for one local woman wearing long pants, and a cute tank top, her long dark hair whipping around as she danced with untrained passion. Marina chatted with us later in the night, telling us how all the rest of the women on the island were too scared to come out dancing. While the boys were allowed to roam free from a young age, the girls were expected to stay home, and this attitude lasted throughout their lives. Those who were not too scared to come out were prohibited from doing so by their husbands. Strong-willed Marina would have none of that.
She told us she had a good husband, and even so it was sometimes hard. She four children, two of them girls. Her oldest daughter had been sent off to Lombok to go to an international school by a Canadian friend, a boon in a land where the local Muslim school only accepts boys and the quality of the public school is dubious. I felt thankful for her little girls having such a strong mother but slightly worried for them knowing some of the challenges they'll face in subverting the system. And all the while filled with hope that women (and all people for that matter) will one day be viewed as equals able to live their lives as they choose, wherever in the world they may be.
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