Women’s Day 2024
I joined a women’s day run yesterday. It was not a well-planned decision — I saw my role model and friend, Seuty, as a pacer in this event and immediately registered. I am glad that I did.
The night before, I went to collect the registration kit from park. It was festive, people of all ages, gender are around. I asked the lady handing me over the kit about female participation, she told me it was approximately around 150. I was cheering inside, it happened over a very short period of time. I must thank BDRunners and leaders like Seuty Sabur and many others who made this a reality — not by preaching but by creating examples themselves for many others.
Our reporting time was 4:15 AM. All looked dark. And there were so many of us — joining the run with famlies, friends, and some were alone. There was this mother-daughter pair; the daughter ran a 10 km run while her mother was on her 25 km target and the daughter shared how her rigid father made breakfast for them. Is it a huge change? Probably not. Is it a change we should celebrate? I think we should. It took the effort of a really large group to make sure there was a safe running space, safe enough when a mother can leave her daughter to run all by herself, something we wish all the time for our daughters growing up in Bangladesh. It shows that it is not impossible to create the safe space we want,
Well, while I was observing all the amazing things, I could barely keep running. I did not practice enough and got really slow — it was not even walking! My inspirational feminist songs were not enough to keep me moving. On the way, so many other fellow runners asked if I needed any help, or anything to keep going. A runner came backward to cheer me up. I wish I asked her name … I could barely respond by then. Well, I was able to complete my 10k within time, at the end.
I saw Seuty greeting me with a smile at the finish line. She greeted almost everyone I saw passing the finish line. And when we sat down together to chat, we realized that we have seen a movement in our lifetime. All these participants regardless of their identities joined with the simplest expectation to run free. Free from biases, injustice and abuse.
Activism has many forms. I have experienced one of the most beautiful one. Cheers to BDRunners and the entire team organizing this run titled Turag Active Dhaka 25k Run. I am such a huge fan of yours.
