Ask Soniya

I Matter Too Before you read this, I would request you to read my previous blog on generational trauma: Can We Unlearn What We Learnt from Our Mothers and Grandmothers? This post is not a separate conversation. It is the voice that rises after we finally recognise what generations of women have been silently carrying. We girls are introduced to forgetting ourselves so early that, after a while, it no longer feels like sacrifice. It feels normal. We watch the women before us eat after everyone else, rest after everyone else and think about themselves only after every other need in the house has been fulfilled. We learn to adjust before we even understand what adjustment means. We learn to lower our voices, swallow our disappointment and smile at decisions in which nobody thought it necessary to include us. And slowly, quietly, we become women who take a back seat in our own lives. The Invisible Training Begins Early A girl is often praised for being obedient, accommodating and mature b...

  CLAIM YOURSELF AGAIN! There are days when you are present everywhere, except with yourself. You wake up and the day begins before you are ready. Someone needs breakfast. Someone needs an answer. There is a message to reply to, a task waiting, a room to clean, a deadline to meet, a family member to care for. And slowly, without even realizing it, you disappear from your own life . You are still doing everything. Still smiling. Still saying, “I’m okay.” But somewhere inside, you know you are tired in a way that sleep alone cannot fix. Sometimes the answer is not to become stronger. Sometimes you simply need to claim yourself again . Not the perfect version of you. Not the productive version. Not the version everybody expects. Just you . When Everything Feels Too Much When the mind becomes overloaded, even small things can feel heavy. You may feel irritated without knowing why. You may want silence but feel guilty for wanting it. You may sit among people you love and still feel stra...

  We live in a world where men and women can never be treated equally. No matter how much hue and cry we make about equality rights, women suffer around the world noticed or unnoticed. In a male dominant society, women are treated as punching bags to show power or to release frustration. This is not the story of only Asian women. WHO reports the endless number of cases every year on domestic violence around the world. Only difference is, the government takes this heinous act seriously in few countries while the others just sit back and don't try to poke their nose in internal matters of a household.  Most cases go unreported due to family pressure, life threats, children's future or because of women not being financially stable. Women are so used to it that they don't even notice that something is wrong in being hit by your partner. The society plays a huge role in brain washing females since their childhood that they are dependent upon their spouse's mercy while males ...