Reflections on travel and feminism.

It is time for feminism, there is talk of a "fourth wave": superheroines, actresses, artists, important figures and mass demonstrations are turning cities purple, we are creating massive movements #Niunamenos #MeToo #IDoBelieveYou... and although there is still a long way to go total equality, we see great progress in the West but what about the less developed countries? What are women facing? And what about traveling as a woman?

Travelling made me very aware of the importance of feminism, seeing how attitudes and phenomena are systematically repeated regardless of the country, they take away the idea that sexism is about isolated cases and people. It is now when, looking back on my travels, I realize what all these years have meant from a female perspective. I am not an expert but I will talk about what I have lived and learned.

In Japan women do not wear a neckline, but wear super short skirts, in India they show the belly as normal but they must cover their shoulders. In Saudi Arabia I have seen women completely covered at 40ºC. In Spain I cannot show my breasts, but in many African tribes it is something natural and everyday.

It is as if in each place someone came and pointed out a part of the woman's body as taboo. It makes me wonder why the female body has always generated so much debate, here and everywhere in the world. Well actually I do know, it's called patriarchy.

To understand how feminism works in less developed regions, it is necessary to know that there is something called "decolonial" feminism, which prioritizes and fights for the voices of people who have been systematically erased, made invisible and marginalized, that is, indigenous women, women black people, indigenous peoples and black peoples, trans bodies, non-binary bodies...

In Asia, in countries like Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia... they live trapped between the opportunities that development is beginning to offer them and the traditions that often offer them a secondary social role, which apparently oppresses the majority, if not all.

In Africa, the burden of poverty on women persists, access to education is not equal, nor to health services, nor to resources, nor in the economy, nor in politics... And that is where for me there is the most important point, which is empowerment in decision-making at all levels of responsibility. The absence of women in positions of power makes it very difficult to create policies and mechanisms to promote equality.

On one occasion we visited a foundation called Barefoot College (http://barefootcollege-zanzibar.org/) in Zanzibar, I saw what they were doing before so I diverted my family from the trip to visit it, an organization with a multinational presence that offers education for women who have never had such an opportunity before, teaching them practical skills in solar energy, beekeeping and sewing and providing knowledge that inspires sustainable and just solutions in East Africa. We chatted for a long time with one of their managers and it was very interesting to see how they empower women who would later return to their villages with knowledge that no one else has.

This is something that an NGO has to do, and the impact reaches as far as it goes; how nice it would be if governments did more things like that, right?

In Latin America, it is different, and it is that you realize that the needs or priorities of feminism vary depending on the region of the world in which you find yourself, although the purpose is always the same. This is due to different reasons depending on the political and social contexts of each country. What is most surprising is the violence against women and their impunity. Something that is related not only to a macho culture, but also to the low participation of women in politics.

It is considered that Latin America contains 9 of the 25 countries with the most femicides in the world (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Mexico), of which 98% are not processed correctly. I have been in 7 of those countries, and I have to say that when traveling accompanied and to more tourist areas (which are usually more "safe"), I have not seen any situation of aggression. But it is true that the worst is always concentrated in the big capitals, cities like Mexico City or Caracas, where it would be unthinkable for me to walk alone.

Women's freedom

I read in the autobiographical book of Malala Yousafzai, a woman who fought for her right to education and who was shot by the Taliban, although that is another story. She tells how her mother stopped going to school when she was only 6 years old because it seemed pointless to go to school to end up like all the women in her village, cooking, cleaning and raising the sons and daughters of she.

Malala fights for women's freedom through education. And I think she's not wrong. Access to education for girls and adolescents improves the quality of life of societies and reduces illiteracy. If women are not aware of the discrimination suffered, how are they going to transform it?

When you travel to the most impoverished regions, it is still very common to see children working from a very young age. Parents prefer that the boy or girl bring home money, however little, rather than go to school, which is seen as "a waste of time." In India I saw many children as street vendors, with chillingly young ages... what is the future of these children?

Personally, I think that the empowerment of women, along with their ability to express themselves publicly on the street and also on social networks with cyberactivism, is very complicated in less developed countries. In Latin America we are beginning to see how women organize themselves to raise their voices with massive demonstrations, as in Argentina with the right to abortion or Chilean women for a life free of violence, or the Iranian women who have now had enough and decided to raise their voices and take to the streets to protest and defend their right to decide how they are dressed.

You don't have to be a woman to be a feminist, and in this area men have to fight for gender equality. It is not easy to get out of a patriarchal system that has existed for centuries, but it is necessary to create safe spaces for women and to understand that feminism does not threaten anyone, it only tries to achieve real equality between both genders.

As long as we continue talking about brave women, we are admitting that we start from an evident situation of fragility and danger.

Fear of traveling as a woman

My father has just traveled on his own to Lebanon and in a group to Syria, I wonder if I could have made the same trip, I immediately think about the precautions I would have to take, and it is not because of lack of desire, but because of fear. And it is that traveling alone as a woman implies other derivatives, in this type of circumstance for fear of being attacked. We women live in fear. If a local invites you to his house to participate in a family meal or offers you accommodation, for a man it is a «cultural experience», for a woman there is a threatening background, because «you never know». Fear, obstacles, lack of freedom.

I would like to continue traveling and above all traveling alone, to continue learning from different cultures and environments, to have a broader perspective of the world, but for this you need to be a self-confident woman with sufficient maturity. But I also believe that the world is a safer place than the media suggests. In fact, statistically, the most threatening and dangerous place for a woman is her own home.

Although I know it's just a matter of luck. It's a lottery.

The women who started traveling alone years ago laid the foundations on which we walk today, they had everything against them: the machismo of the time or the dangers of the trip itself, and even so they crossed Africa, braved the jungles of Asia and became in queens of Arabia.

I am optimistic about the future, the road is long but I see "changes" in the new generations regarding the importance of gender policies and feminism in general. I invite women and men to read me, to read about feminism, to go to talks at demonstrations, to share content about it and above all to women,

"If fear wins us, we lose our lives."