“Not everyone can be a hero here, Aiman. This is a male dominated society where a woman cannot outshine her male counterparts. And if she does, then there must be a strong support behind her as alone she can’t do anything,” my elder sister explained profoundly.

“A woman is so insignificant that a man could easily overwhelm her. There are many, who would go to bat for a man but no one for a woman,” she explicated it further.

“What makes you say that? Women can be heroes,” I mumbled pushing some snacks into my mouth.

“Oh my dear, yes of course they can be. Let it be, you are too young to understand it,” she replied.

I found no way to prove to my sister that women can be much more effectual than men. She wouldn’t get my point.

The next day on the breakfast table, dad was reading the newspaper out so loud that mum could also hear it from the kitchen. “Oh look at this Amna, a son tricked his mother into giving him all her property,” dad read out the headline.

“Oh that’s terrible,” mum replied despondently. Before dad could make any further comment, my sister looked at me as if she was proving her point. She thought, I might have gotten the answer to my question, but it wasn’t so. Once I finished my omelet, I took my bag, gave a kiss to my mum and dad and walked towards the school along my sister.

Our school was near our house so, instead of taking a school bus, we preferred walking to school. Those were the early hours of the day, so it wasn’t much crowded on the street, except for those taking their kids to school or returning. We kept walking until a song from some boys sitting on their bikes made me turn around. They were laughing, singing and were saying something to us which was totally impalpable for me, but I guess aapi had experienced such teasing before, so she ordered me to move quickly from there.

A whole day went by but I was still thinking about the morning’s events.

To satisfy my curiosity, I went to Aapi and asked her to explain what had happened today. Initially, she wasn’t agreeing to that, but later she explained it to me.

“See, a woman cannot ever be equal to a man. A man is blessed with more powers and authority, which cannot be achieved by a woman.”

“But why, aapi?” I asked curiously.

“Well, shake it off now and do not think much about it,” she advised.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it and it was a long time before I slept that day.

As the sun rose the next day, we all woke up and got busy in our morning chores. After I finished my breakfast, I left for school.

As soon as we entered the street, we faced the same harassment as the day before, however, this time I was mentally prepared. Therefore, I quickly reacted by doing something that was a bit risky.

I quickly picked up a few stones and threw it towards the boys, but making sure that it didn’t hit them. I just wounded to distract them. Then I started shouting and in no time a crowd gathered around us. By now the boys had become nervous and they tried to run away, but the crowd caught them. After we explained what the boys had done, to a lady who was taking her children to school too, she quickly turned to the nearest boy and slapped him right on the face. Seeing this, others too slapped the rest of the boys and asked them to say sorry to us.

The boys apologised and finally left after some more scolding. The lady was also going towards our school and she stayed with us till the school. When she appreciated my courage, I turned to look at my sister with a meaningful smile.

Aapi hugged me gently and with a sweet smile said, “Yes! You were right! Girls can be heroes too. You are a hero!”

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 3rd, 2018