About three days ago, someone on my Facebook feed shared an article titled 'I am female and I am so over feminists'. This almost laughable piece cited all the reasons why she thought women weren't 'really' being oppressed, most of it from the point of view of a woman who lives and is from a Western country. I chose to overlook. I did this for many reasons, including the fact that I would not allow myself perpetuate the stereotypes she ignorantly attributed to all feminists — the most common being that we are angry. My restraint died not quite two days after when a certain news station posted a video that showed the President of Nigeria making a crudely misogynistic statement and now, I simply cannot overlook.

The video, roughly two minutes long, shows President Muhammad Buhari replying to a question asking what he thinks of his wife's criticism of his government. Apparently, the First Lady had earlier on expressed disapproval of her husband's leadership style. He addressed this by saying in these exact words, "I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room". I would love to have described how shocked I was, to have given a mind-boggling description of how shaken this moved me. But I wasn't the least bit surprised. Disappointed? In many ways. Ashamed? Obviously. Weary? Very.

Besides all of this, what I felt the most was a deep sadness. Sadness because I suddenly realized how numb I have become to such a blatant sexist act. Sadness that such a disrespectful dismissal of women and their opinions has become so casual that it can no longer pull a reaction out of me. Because I can turn on the television and hear an American presidential candidate boast about touching women without their consent and see that he still has supporters consistently making excuses for him. But most of all, I felt a deeper sadness because it was the president of MY country who made the statement quoted earlier on. That this is the man who leads the nation where I have a mother – a woman who has worked and given her all to ensure I have had an easy and amazing life, a sister - barely a year old, who will most likely grow up hearing things such as this which suggest she is only good for homemaking and satisfying men's physical desires, cousins and friends – whose ambitions slowly keep dying because of the array of limitations slowly being poisoned into their minds.

And with this sadness came a jolt of anger. Something that I have had to and am tired of suppressing. I am allowed to be angry. I have countless reasons to be angry. And I will allow myself to be angry because I live in a world that treats me less because I do not have a penis. I have come to realize society has ingrained into women the mentality that they will always be inferior and as a result women are inherently unconscious enforcers of misogyny. And in some ways, we are the ones standing in the way of ourselves.

So to the writer of that piece who is female and is so over feminists, just pick up a book and read it. I came across a quote the other day that said, 'Privilege is invisible to those who have it'. It is truer than truth itself. So to you who lives in a western country, whose concern when it comes to women's issues are things like the wage gap, curbing rape culture and fighting for the rest of your liberty, remember that as valid as those causes are there are women who are going through way worse. Remember that you did not have to sit through the circumcision of your baby sister, watching as she screamed with blood trickling down her leg like my classmate in high school did. Remember that you weren't married off to a man almost three times your age and forced to become a woman way earlier than you were meant to, as many girls in some third-world countries have been. Remember that you have the right to get an education, to learn to read and write, to go to college or not to if you choose unlike many other girls – oceans and miles away– who would kill for the luxury of that choice because her parents still think her sole purpose is homemaking and marriage and motherhood. Remember that feminism fights for you and her both. Because you both are human and you are equal and deserve to be treated as such.

I saw this quote on a t-shirt which describes feminism in the simplest terms possible. It read, "feminism : the radical notion that women are people". That's as simple as it gets and bless H&M for that shirt, maybe I'll patronize them more. I am not a feminist because I want to feel oppressed or I hate men or I don't want a man to help change my tires. I am because I want equality for every woman, no matter where in the world she is. I hope to have a daughter some day. And I am feminist because I want to fight for the world that will be good enough to bring her into.