Last weekend I witnessed the sexist abuse of a little girl. I saw a girl abused by her mother while her younger brother was favored and not abused. But I didn’t call the police. I didn’t call social services. I simply shook my head and turned away.
Last weekend I took my son to Legoland. He loves Legoland, we go often. Upstairs they have a pirate ship playground, a racecar creation area with race track, and a water feature where kids can build lego boats and float them downstream. All the kids were happily running about and playing. All but one.
We have a lot of Muslim families in the area, I’m used to seeing women covering themselves with the hijab. That’s their right as adults. But this day I saw a little girl, no more than 8 or 9, fully covered in long dress, sleeves past the wrist, and a full hijab, covering every inch of her but from eyebrows to chin. Her little brother of course was in a t-shirt. And while he was allowed to splash and play, she was firmly held on the shoulder by her fully concealed mother.
She wasn’t allowed to play in the water. She would have had to roll up her long sleeves and expose her sinful wrists and elbows. She wasn’t allowed to run, climb or jump, that is also sinful for a girl. Gives the menfolk unclean thoughts. She wasn’t even allowed to sit and build a lego racecar like her brother. Creativity is for boys only.
Eventually they moved off, and I tried to put it out of my mind. But I can't forget the extreme sexist child abuse I witnessed, and stood powerless to do anything about. You know why that is.
To quote Neil Young, “that’s one more kid that’ll never get to go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool”.