Rebirth of the Queens
When we were kids, we were told stories of Queen of Sheba. The Abyssinian Queen so fond of wisdom, that she took a whole trip to Jerusalem to meet the wisest king on earth, King Solomon. In meeting him, she would ask him the most difficult questions and riddles to get answers. The king, who couldn’t resist her beauty and wit, fell in love with her. They had a child together who would eventually become the first king of Ethiopia to start the Solomonic dynasty.
As we grew a little older, we were told of the fearless warrior Princess, Yodit (*Gudit). Yodit, wanted to avenge her people for the atrocities done to them by the Axumite empire, and destroyed the entire town of Axum. This destruction, included melting a church made of Gold, and shattering down Axum’s largest obelisk, which can still be seen, looking as broken and helpless as it did thousands of years ago, in the gardens of the then Axumite royal cemetery.
As we hit our early teenage years, we were thought of the great Empress Taitu, whose strategic diplomacy skills were unmatched and her courage beyond all the men of her era. As the Italians tried to sabotage the Wuchale Treaty and threatened the country’s sovereignty, she took a stand and convinced the her husband, king Menelik, to declare the war on Italy. After doing so, she single-handedly managed to stop a full Italian battalion at the battle of Adwa with her insightful leadership and military strategy. Making the victory of Ethiopia over the Italian colonizers a reality.
And then, somewhere down the line, as we grew into our late teenage years, the topic of women role models started to fade away. Neither our text books nor our everyday life reflected, recognized nor mentioned a single woman for her achievement in leadership roles. Until maybe the past decade, our public discourse did not even include any women and we did not see our qualified women being given an opportunity to show their leadership abilities. Suddenly, we started being told that girls are inferior, weak and unable to be leaders as that is a role for a Man.
Our college and universities, where the creme of our society is supposedly thriving and developing the best minds in country, were even worse. I personally encountered several scenarios where classmates, teachers even librarians, (*who are all mainly men), would be surprised and even question my ability to become an Electrical Engineer. Later in life, I would be confronted by my own students doubting my ability to teach them a topic as “heavy” as Quantum Physics. And soon after my colleagues would find it hard to accept the fact that I have dreams other than being a wife and a mother although we are doing the exact same jobs and have exact same professional qualifications.
In retrospect, I wonder when, in our history we lost confidence in Women being able to do things equally if not better in certain situations than men. Given that our women are such phenomenal managers starting from our mothers, what then happened between the year 550 BC and 2018 AD, that we somehow went backwards and must now prove ourselves to our own society that we are as good as the Men?
In light of this though, in addition to the brave voices of young and older Ethiopian women who were fed up with how society is treating them and demanding equality (check out #Setawit, #YellowMovement and #EthiopianWomenLawyersAssociation), a few weeks ago our Prime Minister announced his cabinet that has 50% women ministers, including our first female defense Minister and few days ago we were introduced with the first female president of the federal supreme court. We have also started to witness a rise of phenomenal female role models in the areas of Technology, Artificial intelligence, Medicine, Entrepreneurship, Agriculture, Education, Engineering and many other fields that were deemed to be only for the Men. And just a week ago, we swore in our first ever FEMALE PRESIDENT!! A position that was only held by men in the modern Ethiopian History.
To have so many women in leadership roles including the presidency, is such phenomenal step, one that marks victory for all Ethiopian women and men who have believed in the equality of women. It makes me so proud to call her Her Excellency, President Sahlework, my president and and all the newly appointed female leaders my leaders! I do believe, they will inspire us all to be the leader they have managed to become. Women who embody such great caliber, integrity, professionalism, elegance and power.Excited for the future of Ethiopia and may this trigger the first of many more phenomenal Ethiopian women’s stories!
Welcome to our queens who finally got the chance to reclaim their throne ❤
