"Is it TRUE, Khun Yai, that in olden times women had it so tough that they had to make a special day to celebrate them?"
I didn't know how to respond, still mentally wincing at the words Khun Yai - the Thai language for "respected maternal grandmother". When & how did that even happen? At nearly 83 years of age, I still felt a girlish 28.
Time seemed to stand still while I had a timeless mental movie marathon running in my head of the changes I had witnessed in my own lifetime since 1963:
- Women being allowed to open a bank account without a husband's signature;
- Women teachers not being forced to retire on marriage;
- Women getting access to contraception without judgement;
- Rape in marriage finally declared a crime;
- Girls becoming mechanics while boys became nurses;
- Paid maternity leave;
- Women free to marry same sex partners;
- The first woman president of the USA;
- The first Muslim woman President of Indonesia;
- The abolition of Sharia Law in the Muslim world;
- Free childbirth and child-care enshrined as an unquestionable human right;
- Equal pay as a global human right, finally.
I remembered distinctly the introduction of Sacred Gender teaching in schools around the world in about 2027, when the world emerged from its third pandemic in 7 years and finally caught up with Thailand which has always embraced 3rd and other genders in both the religious and the secular world. The complete rethinking of education had been one of the blessings The Pandemics had brought those of us who survived.
I chuckled at the look on the delegates' faces when finally travel resumed and we visited one of the last Northern Thai Markets back in 2028; people were astounded that rural women's underwear in this part of the world has always included a secret pocket to hold the money they have managed for their families for generations.
I snapped back to the present moment - to the waiting children - and nodded.
"It's true", I said. "There WAS a time when we needed a special day to remind people how special and important women are, and how much they contribute."
The children were amazed. Cos the world they are growing up in (in 2046) simply honours the dance of masculine and feminine in each sacred human being. I think it was 2037 when International Women's Day was finally delisted as an official international "day", since few people remembered anymore why it was needed. [Sidebar: The few brave souls still fighting the Global Regime maintained that the loss of long term memory was a deliberate strategy that started with the 2021 global vaccination program that started with the First Pandemic.]
And so the storytime ended, and the children ran off to their AI classroom for flotation class in their new gravity-free wellness chamber.
For now, pondering equality and women's rights here in Thailand in 2021, I wish each of my Earth Sisters a happy International Women's Day. I thank and honour those who paved the way for us. I honor the feminine energy in the men and other gendered people in my life, and continue to work quietly for the right for each HUMAN BEING to make their own healthy choices, unconstrained by race, religion or gender.
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