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IT’S A GIRL - DO YOU WANT TO KEEP HER?

By on March 9, 2015
Reya Summer

Written by Reya Summer

What I’m about to share with you is not a fairy tale story.  “It’s a girl – do you want to keep her?” is not a title of a movie or a story book that has a happy ending.

It is a question many mothers are facing in the world even today.

In fact my mother was posed this question the moment I was born.  I was about 15 years old when I heard this ugly truth about my birth.  In a small village of northern India, the minute I was born, a doula held me in her hands and asked my mother, “it’s a girl – do you want to keep her?

Back then newborn girls were murdered at birth, masqueraded by calling it still birth.  It is a disturbing truth.

Although, my mother chose to keep me but when I heard this truth, she was regretting her decision.  This very moment changed my life and left my heart bleeding for many years.

You might be wondering why my mother regretted her decision. Well, because I was the first girl in my family to challenge the norm, to challenge the societal expectations.  I was judged, criticized, abused and punished for making out of the norm choices.

Sadly, I am one of the millions of women in this world who know firsthand what suppression and oppression feels like, women who are going through similar experiences in many part of the world.

In the old days in India a widow was pushed into the burning fire during the cremation process of her husband.  Today women are being burned alive because of dowry issues.

Girls are being victims of unwanted arrange marriages and child marriages.  Emma Watson, who is an Actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, shared in her UN speech on gender equality that 15.5 million girls will be married of as children in the next 16 yrs. When a girl is married off as a child; how is she physically, psychologically and mentally ready to raise a family?

Millions of girls are being aborted each year because of gender.  Little infant girls are being found on streets and dumps of many countries.  It breaks my heart.

I want you to imagine for a minute – what if my mother chose otherwise and didn’t keep me.
I wouldn’t be here today.  I think I turned out alright.  I look like a human being. What’s wrong with being a female?

Now I want you to imagine – if that little girl, who wasn’t as lucky as me, who didn’t survive – if she could say something what would that be? I believe she would say; I have the right to live.  This voice multiplied by millions – We have the right to live.  Do you hear it?

How many lives is it going to take before we wake up?  How many more lives?

 

Reya Summer is a modern-day leader whose message of truth has inspired many around the globe.  She is a Certified Life Empowerment Coach from The S.W.A.T Institute and an Integrated Energy Practitioner.  After having three career changes, one being a Police Officer, she has finally found the purpose of her life.  She left her corporate career in the financial industry and launched her Life Empowerment Coaching practice.  She empowers people to free themselves from self-limiting beliefs, disconnect, pain and suffering.  Liberated from any religious traditions, judgments and societal stereotyping, she guides people to connect with their most aware, creative and authentic selves.  Reya is a visionary and a rising Inspirational speaker.  She spoke at The Enchanted Evening with Crystal Andrus Morissette and Collette-Baron Reid on International Woman’s Day.

 

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