As I look around me, I find more and more woman wearing shackles. These are not woman I see in villages, they are not woman I see in shelters, these are not women I see on the streets, these are not uneducated women. These are women  I see at coffee mornings, clubs, dinners and endless parties. These are women with designer handbags, expensive cars, Gucci shoes. These are women oblivious to the shackles they wear everyday.

Many of them deny it , many are oblivious to them, some hide it with designer accessories, some have accepted it, and some identify with it. These shackles come in all sizes and colors, they can be tight or loose, heavy or light, they are not made of metal, you can’t see them, you can’t even feel them most of the time, until someone decides to pull the strings on them.

They do not violate any human right, you can not complain about them, they are not overtly forced, but subversively placed, they are worn by each individual by their own choice and hence can be removed at any time, yet their weight has bogged woman for centuries.

Expensive cars, Louis Vuitton bags, Prada shoes, or Chanel Sunglasses can not hide their ominous presence. These are not shackles of society, gender or religion, which many believe they have broken free of. They are shackles of economic dependence………..

Be it countries, institutions or individuals, once you are financially dependent you have pawned your freedom to think, to question and to voice. If only these women stepped out of their designer facades and woke up to the reality that their freedoms are only as good as the men around them chose them to be. A wise person once said ‘the worse  form of control is financial dependence……it takes away the freedom to be you’.