Amira Karaoud Freelance Photojournalist

I will have soft hands

I WILL HAVE SOFT HANDS

In communities around the world a cultural myth traps generation after generation of women. Daughters raised to believe that marriage will be their rescue from a life of poverty, grow up believing that their husbands will be a lover, a savior, a provider and a protector. They marry believing that their wedding day will be the beginning of a life of safety and happiness. When the wedding is over myth collides with the reality of life in a world in which women living in poverty face gross inequalities and an injustice from birth to death. In many cultures a woman is an economic liability. At birth she might be abandoned and left to die. During her childhood her nutrition may be neglected in favor of male children. Male children are raised to believe they come first in all things. The man she marries will never have learned to place himself on an equal level with her or to make an effort on his own. In a world in which everything has been given to him, he has been raised to believe that this will be true in his own marriage and family and home. The marriage a young woman hopes will be the end of her troubles is a myth. Instead of a home free of the labor and exploitation that was a part of her early life, she is getting a home where everything is worse. Instead of being forced to do one job and sacrifice for her father and brothers, she now has to do everything for her entire family. She will bear children of her own that she will have to work to feed. She will work in harsh conditions to provide for her family, including a husband who likely contributes nothing to the home. Sons will be raised to believe they come first in everything. Daughters will be an economic liability and she will raise them to believe that marriage will be the end of their troubles. She will raise them to dream of that day and in adolescence they may be pushed into early marriage in order to get them out of the house. In this way, the myth of marriage gets handed down to the next generation.