We are pleased to post the latest short story written by Rafia Alhuraiz for our latest theme Ambition so we hope you enjoy it ^^

The girls name was Amal. A 16-year-old Emirati born on the 29th of October, raised by two loving, caring, warm-hearted parents, Marwan and Mai. Amal has two elder brothers, Ahmed and Omar who stood by her and protected her. However, Amal always wanted a sister. “Why does all my friends have sisters and I don’t? Why can’t I have a sister?” she thought. Besides, she knew the perks of being an only daughter, we all know the perk don’t we? It’s to be a “daddy’s girl” which was pretty much what all girls wanted. Her brothers were somehow jealous, Amal points at whatever she desires and her dad gets it for her. It’s like magic, Amal using her wand and spells to get what she wants. Her dad would see it as his daughter’s needs, and her mom would see it as her daughter’s wants to fulfill her aspiration. Even though she was the spoiled brat her brothers had interesting things to do too, they would go out with their friends every weekend, come back home at midnight, do whatever they wish to do and no one would ever dare to stop them. She always wanted to do the exact same thing; yet, all she was told is that she was a girl and they were boys. Amal didn’t understand, “Why cant I? Why can they? So what if I’m a girl? There aren’t rules for what I can and what I cant do depending on my gender?” Amal thought.

Amal still didn’t understand the rules of life or the rules of gender. Amal still didn’t understand how your gender could play an entire different scenario of your life. All she knew is that some things aren’t meant for girls, and that people would start talking frivolously. That’s what she learnt from her parents. At school, girls come from different family’s with different backgrounds that aren’t even close to how her parents believes, sometimes she even sound irrelevant to those girls. She always shows the strong and tough side of herself, and kept the weak side of her a secret. She carried a lot of thoughts through the past years, at a certain point she knew she couldn’t share it with anyone, not even her own parents. “People might not understand?” Amal thought. One day, she had the courage to ask a single question that would answer less than a quarter of her thoughts. She walked up to her mom, “Mom, there’s something going on that I’m not aware of, I cant grasp the idea and digest it.” Amal told her mom. “ Why do you favor my brothers over me? Why are there some things that I’m not allowed to do? I mean they have a superior power upon us.” She asked. “Well darling, men have power over women, they have some control over their women’s lives. The reason you aren’t allowed to do things your brothers do is because they are boys and you are a girl.” Said her mother. “But why?!” she asked with hesitation. Mai sat there next to her daughter speechless, silent, stunned, didn’t expect her daughter would have such thoughts.

Amal have always kept her thoughts to herself, it filled her cranium. Amal kept it for months before she realized that she felt like a grenade that would explode at any minute. She always thought but never shared. She always wanted but never asked. She always wondered, “in what way are men better than women?”

Today, Amal is a 23-year-old woman. She got married almost 3 years ago after Essa asked for her hand, and now she is a mother of 2 beautiful kids, Mai, whom she named after her mother and Hamad, whom Essa named after his father. Amal isn’t a “stay at home mother,” she’s a CFO at a private company. Although her brothers were elder, she was the first one to be an independent wife/mother/employee that is financially stable. Amal proved to herself even though she wasn’t allowed to do whatever her brothers did, yet, she followed her intentions to satisfy her ambition. She made her parents proud.

Parents should try to understand the generation gap, and to know that through out the years people’s perspectives have changed. People must educate themselves, at least to know the difference between what’s forbidden and what’s “3aib.” Now days, the human race focuses more on what people might think or say that would affect their reputation instead of standing for their rights. Not all women are born to be a stay at home mother, besides, some are really creative and willing to show their support to the people that surround them. They are capable of doing unpredictable, phenomenal, capricious accomplishments. Women should believe in themselves and their abilities, to be able to over come the impediments that they might face.

Author: Rafia Alhuraiz