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No Money, No Honey: Reflections from the UN Women’s Conference
You know that old saying where women do the house work and the guy brings home the bacon? As a single woman, I cannot relate. As a woman raised predominantly by a single mother, I cannot relate. As a Muslimah, I cannot relate because bringing home bacon is a turn off. However, I can relate to the value of a woman’s participation in the household and the greater economy. It’s 2017 and here we are still debating women’s issues, let’s not go down the rabbit hole of women of color, young girls, or equal pay. Fact is, it’s 2017, why is this still even in question? Well, the simplest answer…
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A Global Thirst Trap: Breaking The Cycle of Poverty
One of the most used terms amongst me and my friends is the phrase “thirst trap”. It’s just a colloquial way of expressing a negative attribute that speaks to desperation, and it has nothing to do with water. Last week on World Water Day, I could not help but to think thirst trapping is a real subject matter in our world. Yet, thirst trapping is not a matter of desperation but it is a matter of cyclical poverty, a trap that continues to cycle without the ability to quench a thirst. From the moment, we are born, we are trapped by the element of water. As newborns, we are 75…
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IRUSA Intern Reflects On Being “Too Much”
The name Kayla Vaughn Tolbert tells you nothing else but my name, my identifier. My name is simple but my identity is complex. Three sub identities are encompassed into Kayla Tolbert. Although we live in a contemporary social sphere aimed to break racial, sexual and religious barriers, I prefer to keep my barriers intact. I have three identities, two crowns (hair and hijab), and one voice. I am black, I am a woman and I am Muslim. For the ignorant, for the stubborn, for the misogynists, for racists, for the conservative, for the pacifists, I am too much. I was raised by a single mother of a black and Pakistani…
