It was whilst I was doing some research for the Chloe perfume review that I uploaded before that the theme 'free woman' really stood out to me, but what was a free woman? It was then that I realised that I wanted to talk about more issues, which you could probably describe as humanitarian, but I didn't think it was be right of me to derail that post. So I thought doing a separate post, especially to coincide with International Women's Day on the 8th March, would really allow me write more about it.

When we hear of strong, independent women making their own path in the media a lot of the times we see famous celebrities or people who were born in perhaps a more affluent or prosperous environment, but I can't stop thinking that it's easy to do so when you have freedom, and I guess that our freedom is something that we take for granted in a developed and safe country, where we have access to education, jobs and a future! Where there are laws to uphold our rights. So on International Women's day on the 8th March why don't we think of those women who go through huge obstacles around the world everyday just to live, because that could easily have been us, we won the lottery and they didn't, should their lives not be celebrated? Should we not lobby for their freedom? Women around the world go through tremendous hurdles to achieve a better quality of life for their families and their communities, but instead of raising an awareness of this the media deems celebrity reality stars' lives as more important. This is why I try and read news sources regularly as yes I could just pretend these things aren't going on but then how am I any better? It's hearing stories, such as this one of Syeda Ghulam Fatima, single handedly trying to end bonded slavery that open my eyes and make me see the wider world.

It's hearing the plight of this woman who risked it all for a better life for her and her husband that reminds me what it is to be human. I'm not saying I know what the right or wrong answer is but I loved the refugee series by Humans of New York because it was selfless and it showed a side to the story that we don't hear. Education is something that will have been accessible for most of us reading this, but if there's one thing I know it's that I will never take it for granted my ability to read and write, or even to have a laptop to write on. Education lifts people out of poverty, it gives them a future and hope, yet so many people don't have access to education, to schools, to teachers. Photo: UN Women/Shaista Chishty

If there is one thing that irritates me however it is when I hear people in full time jobs talking about how 'poor' they are. Yes I do realise that you can struggle to get by in a full time job too, but if you're jetting off on numerous holidays a year or spending all your money on shopping sprees then you definitely don't know what poverty is. 836 million people live in extreme poverty! (Source: unwomen) Imagine wondering how you're next going to feed your family, numerous women are going through this and it's really saddening. Finally, I know how this can seem all contradictory when I run a beauty blog, but as you will know our beauty blogs aren't every aspect of our life, we all probably have a lot of other things going on so why not use this platform to address other topics? Plus as a women this affects us all, so why don't we share our ideas with each other, just like we would do with a review.

I know this is a somewhat unusual post, but I would like to hear your opinion on this.
Thank you if you read this!
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