Dear Rafi: Jamila Rizvi’s Open-Letter To Her Son On International Women’s Day

'There’s seemingly endless chatter about raising girls to be brave and not nearly enough about raising boys to be kind.'

By Jamila Rizvi

Gender diversity

'There’s seemingly endless chatter about raising girls to be brave and not nearly enough about raising boys to be kind.'

By Jamila Rizvi

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Dear Rafi,

The gendered world you’ve been born into is changing. It’s changing too rapidly for some and far too slowly for others. As you get older, that’s going to cause a lot of people to shout at one another in the media. In fact, it already does. You’ll read angry opinions on the internet – mostly from blokes – saying we’ve gone too far, that men are being discriminated against. You’ll likely feel confused by this. Perhaps you’ll question whether there’s truth in it. You might even wonder if the world was a better place for people like you back before feminism came along and turned everything on its head.