I was sitting in my study the other day minding my own  business and my 
friend Papet, after watching a documentary about how women  need to be empowered, 
mosied on to my corner and chided; Haruna, we need to  empower our women. 
Before he said that, I tried to stop him in his tracks  by saying "Papet, whatever 
it is, I don't wanna hear it, I'm in a  Trans right now". As usual, Papet 
didn't wanna hear that either. So I  had to yield and really think about what he 
was saying. What ensued was a more  exhaustive treatment of that subject than I 
had ever engaged in prior.
 
When we talk of empowering women, what we are really talking about are  our 
sisters, wives, mothers, grand mothers, and all female humans. Of course we  
wouldn't talk about other species because we do not understand the  
communications among them and the imbalance of power among those other  species is not 
readily apparent to us humans were it to have been present and  disdainful to 
them. Then it dawned upon me; Maybe the question ought to be "How  can women all 
of us make women equal partners in nation-building"?
 
The reason is because when we started talking about how to empower women,  we 
quickly recognized we are inferring that the men are empowered somehow and  
that the women are not - putting aside genetic pre-dispositions. Wouldn't  it 
be nice if we can figure out what powers men have that women don't and  whether 
those powers inordinately favor men than women in matters of life.  Before we 
knew it, our conversation centered around physical strength and its  
innurements. Advantages or disadvantages of Mental strength,  ambidexterity, 
desire(choice), traditional proclivities, etcetera,  were not readily discernible.
 
Papet used to be a tiny baby and he recounts to me how he used to be  bullied 
and picked on for not taking part in sports that required enormous  physical 
strength and he grew up being afraid of the larger boys. Why his sister  used 
to bully him too. I on the other hand used to be a big baby, but I didn't  
bully smaller babies but I used my physical strength then to lift heavy things  
around the house that my sisters and cousins or the smaller boys could not 
lift.  When it came to farm work, I would complete twice the amount of work or 
more  according to the imbalances of endowments. My father, a devout muslim, also 
 encouraged that innate sense of discernment and when I would refuse 
sometimes, I  would get a whipping. I hardly ever used my strength to settle disputes 
and  hardly ever fought. Papet reminds me that that was because I was never  
threatening to anybody by virtue of my nasal voice, always in measured tone, 
and  that I gravitated more toward mental gymnastics to persuade rather than 
brute  force, and I used my spare strength to yield value for other rather than  
store it for when I may need it in a friggin fight. Needless to say, I was  
humbled. Papet is used to filling my head with such humbling commendations, and  
frankly I've just about had it.
 
So I asked Papet, if I were so genteel and generous, how come smaller  people 
always picked a fight with me? even my smaller sisters. He shared that in  
this competitive world of limited resources, everyone is constantly engaged in  
either psychological warfare or exchanging blows and bullets to get a leg up 
on  everyone else when it came to hoarding those limited resources. So those 
who  enjoin their larger comrades in fights are in the constant quest for 
proving  ground. Yeah, but why me? There are other big people around. Why not pick 
on  them? You know Papet; he shared that it was because I had more to offer for 
 proving than other bigger people and that I was so welcoming and permissive, 
it  was easy to take advantage of. It is the net gain of the proving he 
shared that  made me the target of choice. So I started to train myself to be mean 
but I  couldn't get rid of the trademark smile and the sagitarian demeanor. 
And  besides, challengers usually didn't get far with me in their quest. It 
always  ended in total humiliation and further diminution for them. The only thing 
I  could do was try to shed some weight and stay lean and then avoid idiots 
who  think the only value for physical strength is that it gives them a leg up 
in  competing for limited resources. I trained myself therefore on 
appreciation for  the limited resources "Not to want more than I really needed".
 
I still couldn't escape the erstwhile conman, the thief, and the  Munaafiq. 
 
Then I shared with Papet that all of what we have talked about so far did  
not distinguish men from women much. A group of women on a deserted island,  
would be as much idiotic as a group of equal number of men on a deserted island  
with the same amount of albeit limited resources. It then dawned on us that 
the  problem therefore is the comparative appreciation of physical power across 
the  genders that is culprit. In other words, those men who use their physical 
or  mental strengths (where they are overwhelming) to subdue women, and those 
women  who use their physical or mental strength (where overwhelming) to 
subdue men.  The former more prevalent than the latter. It is this imbalance in 
event  frequency that we perceive when we say women must be empowered. For  
what???? I would frequently ask?
 
The honourable Ajaratou Isatou Njie Saidy, V.P., is more powerful than most  
women in Gambia by virtue of her physical strength and stature in  Authority. 
On top of that she has a Phdee. I asked Papet wouldn't be  extraordinary if 
Ajaratou were to assist in women empowerment in Gambia and  bear (respectfully) 
on Yahya to refrain from arresting, or detaining, women like  Mariam Denton, 
Duta Kamaso, FJManneh or to release them without prejudice for  the mere reason 
that Yahya is enormously stronger than most Gambians, men or  women, and for 
reasons of this empirical imbalance of event frequency? Is there  anything to 
be afraid of by bearing reasonably on Yahya and to yield women  empowerment a 
good turn? I understand Ajaratou, V.P., speaks at many a  conference around 
the globe on women empowerment, but consider the gravity of  peer recognition 
and an unchastened soul. And I would like her to make it  possible for Gambian 
women political prisoners to receive phdees at mile  two.
 
Alternatively of course, Yahya could, without waiting for Ajaratou V.P. to  
bear reasonably on him, begin to make ammends to these and all other women of  
Gambia and the world that he has ever maligned or tried to subdue for the mere 
 reason that he is more powerful. In effect, cross-gender stages are a poor  
endroit for proving. If Yahya were still bent on proving himself, he could do  
better by staying with his own gender. Although I do not think Yahya needs to 
 prove anything to anyone.
 
There is a consolational rail or paradigm in this question of women  
empowerment that I will share next month. By that time I would hope that  Yahya will 
have compensated Mariam Denton, Duta Kamaso, and will have released  FJManneh 
without prejudice and compensated her for the affects of unnecessary  
subjugation. When next I have an opportunity, I will share with Yahya and my  coleagues 
here how funny FJManneh's situation is. Yahya should not however  wait for 
that discussion. I would like him to release FJManneh today, latest  Monday. 
Waras Bouk.
 
Haroun Masoud. MQDT. Al Khairawan. Darbo. 
 
  



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