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Being a Golden Girl in these very Dark Ages
The world seems to be focused on Ukraine, but there have been ongoing crises in Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Myanmar, Congo, Nigeria, Yemen, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.
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Feed those in need: Poor Yemeni families receive flour rations and other basic food supplies from charities in the province of Lahj, in southern Yemen, on March 29, as food prices have doubled since last year and the fact that Ukraine supplies nearly a third of Yemen's wheat imports has heightened fears of a deepening famine. (AFP/Saleh Al-Obeidi)
D
o you older readers remember the very popular American satirical comedy The Golden Girls, which ran between 1985-1992, featuring four women in their 50s and 60s? They were women with whole, complex characters defined by their personalities, jobs and adventures, who were proof that age is just a number.
What I loved about the TV series, besides it being hilariously entertaining, was that it was groundbreaking. It featured older women in a youth-centered industry, and dared to deal with controversial, sensitive and even taboo issues: race; sex; sexism; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) topics; aging; divorce; family; love and gender relations; poverty; homelessness; immigration; health care; HIV; addiction and even assisted suicide.
These are issues that we continue to face. For this reason, the series has attracted new fans in the 21st century due to its contemporary relevance.
On July 19, I turned 68, and therefore I, too, am a Golden Girl. Just like the Golden Girls in the sitcom, I also feel I continue to lead “a life full of adventure, humor and long stories of lives still being lived”, as the women in The Golden Girls were described in a 2021 documentary about them.
From my current vantage point, I have been able to do a life review and see things from a very different perspective. The people who were my devils and events that were my hell, I now see in a positive light, as agents of my growth and development that shaped me and were instrumental in making me wiser, more patient, more understanding and compassionate. Indeed, often your worst enemies can be your best teachers.
At the beginning of this year, I set up and became the director of the Gender and Democracy Center of the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Information and Publication (LP3ES) at age 67, after 50 years of being a freelancer. It was an existential change, but I accepted the challenge, as it would leverage the impact of my efforts, based on the work I had done as a scholar, and human rights and democracy activist for at least 30 to 40 years.
However, I am a Golden Girl in a Dark Age that is getting darker and darker. I often experience cosmic sadness when approaching a birthday, but this year it has been much more severe. And with reason.
