The actor wrote an essay for Elle Magazine, calling out the oppression women and femme folk have had to put up with since the beginning of time.
“In my work, I travel often to countries where I know that if I were a citizen there, my beliefs and actions as a woman could land me in jail or expose me to physical danger,” said Jolie. “Female human rights defenders across the world are incarcerated for their political views or for defending themselves or others, with courage I can hardly imagine.”
“Looking across the world, we have to ask, Why is so much energy expended to keep women in a secondary position?”
She further added, “Wicked women are just women who are tired of injustice and abuse. Women who refuse to follow rules and codes they don’t believe are best for themselves or their families. Women who won’t give up on their voice and rights, even at the risk of death or imprisonment or rejection by their families and communities.”
“If that is wickedness, then the world needs more wicked women.”
Women can always relate to Jolie’s role. From Jane Smith to Maleficent, she has been portrayed in various feisty and empowered female roles.
Jolie reminisced about her humanitarian work in areas such as Pakistan, and Syria as she wrote, “I think of a father whom I met the first time I went to an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, during the rule of the Taliban. He had been beaten so badly for sending his daughters to school that the whites of his eyes were yellow from the damage to his liver”.
Jolie’s essay gives us perspective into the kind of struggles women all around the world, especially in the developing world such as parts of Pakistan, have to go through. Can we relate? Very much so.
