Zainab Jeewanjee

I am celebrating seminal moments, art, experiences and people in my life today that have brought me joy, inspiration and hope and helped me discover glory, strength, beauty and power in being a woman over the years.

Consider this my very own feminist millennial version of Billy Joels “We Didn’t Star the Fire” (Gen X will get that reference).

• The first time my dad played Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” when I was all of 6 years old.
• As an elementary school kid, watching Hillary campaigning for healthcare reform in the early 90’s
• Meeting the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when I was 10. She showed more interest in me than all the adults in the room after delivering a talk in Cupertino about women’s rights and I still remember the tenderness she had and interest she took in my thoughts.
• My first feminist literary theory class at single sex college prep high school in late 90’s
• Discovering Emily Dickenson’s poetry in aforementioned literary theory book
• Taking a rape prevention class in lieu of traditional physical education at said high school.
• My dad explaining to me why a womans right to choose is undoubtedly the right policy anytime it came up in the news.
• The first time I saw the music video for “Sleep Now In the Fire” by Rage Against the Machine
• My first sociology class in college where i truly understood why social stratification mattered.
• Beginning Yoga in 2007 allowing me to discover newfound physical & emotional strengths.
• Campaigning for Hillary in 2008
• The first time I realized the Beatles Dear Prudence is a feminist anthem while in savasana.
• All the times I was discouraged to do what I wanted to do but still did what I wanted to do even when it took years to shake off the discouragement while simultaneously learning that late blooming is not just okay, it’s beautiful.
• Learning to use Ujjayi breath.
• My dad through example, always demonstrating what liberalism really means, economically and socially.
• Living on my own.
• Marriage.
• Carrying 2 pregnancies for 18 months.
• Nursing 2 kids for a total of 42 months.
• Hillary’s presidential campaign fighting fake news and the patriarchy in ways no one could have foreseen in 2016.
• The Womens March 2017.
• Multitasking from home through a pandemic managing kids’ school, a team remotely for work, accelerating sales, and managing my home.
• Raising kids.

Women are not a monolith; we don’t all think with homogeneity, and we have vastly unique experiences. Yet we share a common space in this world that is too often defined by our societies as us being smaller or weaker, or lesser; we are deemed the ‘other’. But still I smile, because everywhere I look, and for as long as I can remember I see women rise, nonetheless.