EQUALITY

Dear Future Wife, I am not sure if we have met. But if we have, I’m sure you’re smart and beautiful. It is sad the world continues to undervalue you. Maybe things might change.

Maybe things might be different by the time we marry. I hope so. But I understand and appreciate your value. I want you to be a role model to our daughters. I want them to know that a woman can be anything a man can be – independent, ambitious and powerful.

You can choose to do my laundry. You can choose to shine my shoes. You can choose to iron my clothes. But you’re not obliged to. No! Because we’re equal.

I chose you out of 4 billion women because you make me a better man. So why treat you like a paid house hand? You can choose to bear my name. I’d be the proudest man if you do. But you wouldn’t be obliged to. I chose you; your name inclusive. There’s no reason to change.

Dear Future Wife, I want the world to understand that inasmuch I chose you, you chose me too. And I am glad you did. But the world always seems to forget that you chose too.

The world makes it seem as though you are lucky you got chosen. But I don’t. I respect your choice. They tell you that “equality is not the same as identicality”. But is it equality when your wings are clipped and you are defined by a stereotype as old as an Egyptian mummy?