Editorial
We are celebrating International Women’s Day today, a day that once symbolised courage, resilience, and genuine progress. Yet, while the world applauds hollow gestures and performative activism, the harsh reality remains unchanged—women still face staggering levels of violence, discrimination, and systemic oppression. Every year, an estimated 736 million women—almost one in three worldwide—experience physical or sexual violence. Honour killings, domestic abuse, and human trafficking remain rampant, particularly in regions where women are denied even the most basic rights. In Afghanistan, women are banned from education, in parts of the Middle East, they are still considered legal minors, and in developed nations, sexual violence and workplace harassment persist despite decades of activism.
Yet, against all odds, women throughout history have shattered expectations and defied the odds. Marie Curie’s groundbreaking scientific achievements, Valentina Tereshkova’s historic spaceflight, and Rosa Parks’ fearless defiance against racial oppression are just glimpses into the strength and perseverance of women across the ages. From suffragettes marching for the right to vote to female warriors leading revolutions, true feminism was forged in the fires of struggle. These were women who fought not for vanity or wealth, but for justice, dignity, and equality.
But let us peel away the glossy banners, corporate endorsements, and empty slogans that flood the streets and social media. What remains beneath this carefully curated façade is an inconvenient truth—modern feminism, once the harbinger of women’s liberation, has been hijacked, commercialised, and turned into a grotesque parody of itself. It is no longer a movement; it is an industry. It is no longer a fight for equality; it is a tool for manipulation, financial opportunism, and the cynical exploitation of womanhood itself.
Once, the feminist movement was driven by necessity—women fought for the right to vote, to work, to own property, to exist beyond the confines of a kitchen or a marriage contract. The early suffragettes, the women of the workforce in wartime, and those who risked everything for their right to education embodied the essence of true feminism. These were warriors, not opportunists. They sought neither privilege nor power but fairness. Yet, somewhere along the way, this noble cause was hijacked by individuals who saw feminism not as a means of justice, but as a lucrative career path, a marketing tool, and—worst of all—a convenient shield against accountability.
Time’s Up, the #MeToo movement, and the Women’s March—these were once symbols of righteous anger and long-overdue justice. Today, they stand as cautionary tales of what happens when power is left unchecked. Time’s Up, an organisation that promised to provide legal aid to victims of sexual misconduct, collected millions in donations. But when the veil was lifted, the truth was shameful—executives were found working behind the scenes to protect the very men accused of wrongdoing, their coffers lined with donations that were supposed to go to victims. The organisation collapsed under the weight of its own hypocrisy, leaving behind a wake of disillusioned women and shattered trust.
The Women’s March, that once-powerful voice of the oppressed, became an arena of infighting, accusations of anti-Semitism, and financial mismanagement. What should have been a movement for all women became an exclusionary club, its leadership embroiled in controversies that exposed it as just another cash-grabbing spectacle. When movements become brands, when activism becomes an industry, the very people they claim to fight for become nothing more than props in a larger performance.
Consider the Black Lives Matter movement, where feminism intertwined with racial activism. While millions took to the streets to demand justice, one of the co-founders, Patrisse Cullors, quietly accumulated luxury properties worth millions. Donations meant for struggling communities were instead funnelled into real estate empires. And yet, when questions were raised, the rebuttal was predictable—any criticism was framed as misogynistic, racist, or anti-progress. It is the oldest trick in the book: weaponising identity to silence accountability.
Feminism’s corruption extends beyond these headline scandals. Consider the misuse of gender activism in corporate settings. The gender pay gap—while real in some instances—is often paraded around without nuance or context. Organisations that loudly proclaim their commitment to feminism routinely exploit female workers in third-world sweatshops. Celebrities who champion women’s empowerment sell products made by underpaid and overworked women in Bangladesh and Cambodia. The hypocrisy is not just staggering—it is systemic.
And what of Elizabeth Holmes, the so-called ‘self-made’ woman who built a multi-billion-dollar fraud empire under the guise of breaking the glass ceiling? When her lies were exposed, she and her defenders played the feminism card—insisting that she was being persecuted because she was a woman in a male-dominated industry. But fraud knows no gender. Deception is not empowerment. Yet, time and time again, the feminist movement has shielded the corrupt and the dishonest, so long as they wave the right banners and chant the right slogans.
Let us not forget the feminist NGOs that siphoned government grants meant for women’s empowerment, only for the funds to vanish into bureaucratic black holes. When exposed, there was no outcry, no global movement to demand justice for the women who were deprived of the support they desperately needed. Feminism today picks and chooses its battles—not based on morality, but on marketability.
We are also witnessing a bizarre, modern evolution of feminism—one that demands equality but clings to privilege. There are women who preach independence while demanding special treatment, who decry the patriarchy but expect men to foot the bill, who claim oppression while wielding power with impunity. True feminism sought fairness. Today’s feminism seeks convenience.
And so, here we are, on International Women’s Day. There will be speeches, banners, and hashtags. Corporations will drape themselves in pink, offering empty platitudes while paying their female employees less than their male counterparts. Activists will post inspirational quotes, ignoring the women in Afghanistan who have been erased from public life. Celebrities will don T-shirts that scream ‘Girl Power,’ made by the very hands of exploited women they pretend to care about. It is a show. A circus. A carefully orchestrated illusion.
But illusions do not last forever. The cracks are already showing. People are waking up to the realisation that modern feminism, in many forms, has become a lie sold for profit. The real women—the ones who struggle, who fight, who survive—are being left behind. If feminism is to mean anything again, it must be reclaimed from the clutches of those who exploit it. It must return to its roots—not as an industry, not as a brand, but as a movement for genuine equality.
Until then, let us not be fooled by the banners, the slogans, or the crocodile tears of those who see womanhood as nothing more than a stepping stone to power, money, and influence. A wolf in feminist clothing is still a predator. And a movement that forgets its purpose is no movement at all.
