By Madison Alvarado, Intuitive Writing Project student

What does it mean when you tell a woman she can cast a ballot but she can’t show her face? How does a country consider itself a democracy when every single day it strips 50 percent of its population of their freedoms?

It seems funny to me that people think gender equality isn’t an issue anymore because women were allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia for the first time ever just three weeks ago and I can still get arrested for making eye contact with a man in public in some countries.

So don’t tell me I should be ashamed to be a feminist when there are still battered women’s shelters to volunteer at every day and I am still told that the girl in my third period is a slut for wearing a tight dress and my English teacher still says that every woman is expected to be a mother.

The illusion of equality is so much worse than downright oppression because people tell me I am fighting against nothing but demons are just as real even if they’re invisible.