Women's Rights Persuasive Speech: Examining Rights and Equality

This report presents a persuasive speech advocating for women's rights, addressing the historical and contemporary challenges faced by women globally. The speech begins with an introduction drawing parallels from the movie Little Women and highlighting the work of individuals and organizations like Lenora M. Laoidus and the American Civil Liberties Union in the fight for gender equality. The main body of the speech emphasizes the violation of human rights experienced by women, including violence, discrimination, and lack of access to basic rights, using examples of gender-based violence and societal injustices. It also delves into Islamic perspectives on women's rights, emphasizing the importance of women's roles in decision-making and financial independence. The conclusion calls for greater respect, dignity, and opportunities for women, urging a collective effort to create a peaceful and prosperous world where women are valued and empowered. The speech is supported by references to relevant books and journals, providing a comprehensive overview of the topic.

PERSUASIVE SPEECH ON
WOMEN’S RIGHTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Hope you all have heard about the movie Little Women which was focussed on the life of
four sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy who lived and grew after the Civil war took place. All the
four sisters were living their life one as a writer another one as a painter, the other one by
marrying to a school teacher and Beth developed an illness which devastated the whole family
and brought them all together. Their mother was the most outspoken one and the father was
fighting in the American Civil War.
You all might have heard about Lenora M. Laoidus who is a lawyer with the American Civil
Liberties Union who strived hard for expanding organizational fight for providing each gender
with equal rights beyond the other concerns of middle class or black and white. Ms. Lapidus led
the most important project of A.C.L.U.’s Women’s rights which became the key legal arm for
the emerging movements of gender equality and also forced the court to consider the women’s
rights as civil rights with all the constitutional protections.
The fact is now clear to everybody that the topic chosen is Women’s rights. This is chosen
because the women who work day and night without being tired to fulfil all the demands of
children, husband and family members do not get the rights they deserve. The men are not
responsible for anything except earning, coming eating and sleeping, still they are provided with
much more rights than women (Alsuwaida, 2016). This is obvious that men and women cannot
get the equal rights because of the wide gap in their mental and physical abilities but the focus is
on to provide the women with the rights they deserve and need.
In order to live in a peaceful world with all the satisfied women, they must be provided with all
the rights though mot equal to men. There is an urgent need to understand that no formula exists
for the women to lead their lives. Therefore, the choices made by them to do the same must be
respected and deserves opportunities through which their God-given potential can be recognised.
Though it is believed that the women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition, being
different from men in numerous aspects. At the same time, it must also be realized that human
rights must be protected and respected in order to gain full dignity for women.
3

MAIN BODY
It is the time to break silence and raise our voice regarding the unacceptance of women’s rights
separated from Human rights. This is the time to stop the abuses to women and cut the voice of
the people who try to silence our words in favour of Women’s rights. The major need for the
speech on such a topic i.e., ‘Women’s rights’ is the violation of human rights which can be seen
in many cases like:
The need to make our voice louder and clear is realized when the women and girls are sold for
prostitution. When the babies are denied food, they are drowned, suffocated, their spines are
broken, the reason behind all these is just because they are girls (Arabia, 2016). Also, the women
are doused with gasoline, set on fire, burned to death as well and all these just because their
dowries at the time of marriage deemed too small as compared to the amount expected.
It was also observed that the main cause of death in women of 14 to 44 age group is the violence
they are facing at their own homes. The young girls are also brutalized through the painful
practice of genital mutilation. The need was also observed when the women were even not
allowed to plan about their own families and are forced to abort the child or being sterilized
against the will.
It was also quoted by Mary Wollstonecraft “I do not wish them [women] to have power over
men; but over themselves”. This means that it is not the demand of the women to get more rights
than men but must be given rights which can protect them and make them able to express their
views in front of everyone and must not be scared to do the right things.
When discussing about the marital status of women, Gloria Steinem expressed her views like
“Men should think twice before making widowhood women's only path to power.”
Let’s talk about the Women’s rights in Islam. Islam gave the right to the women to choose her
own husband and are not forced to marriage with their cousins or family ones (Saiya, 2020). The
girls accepted the trend to get married with their cousins for the sake of their parents but opposite
is happening nowadays.
The women must be given an important role in the decision making processes at homes and must
be feel valued. All the decisions must be finalized after making each women aware about it. The
women must also be given rights to make expenses on their own (Al-Amoudi, 2017). They must
be allowed to move out, do the jobs and earn money and fulfil their needs.
4

This is the time to discuss about the changes which are in favour of the women which motivates
the policymakers to develop such policies which give the women rights such as right to live free
from violence, slavery and discrimination, to vote, to own property, to be educated, to earn a fair
and equal wage (Alakbarov and Zeynalli, 2017). Recently, the 75th anniversary of women’s
suffrage was celebrated which gave the women the right to vote. It happened after 150 years of
independence which needed 72 years of struggle of courageous men and women. All the
problems were not solved but it gave motivation to all the people to provide the women with all
the rights they deserve.
CONCLUSION
After considering all the aspects, it is observed that if we take the bolder steps to make
the life of women, the life of children and the families will already be better because the families
rely mostly on the women for emotional support and care and also labour and income as well. the
healthy children can only be produced with the good care of the mothers. This suggests that the
women and girls must be valued more, overpaid, fed more and less subjected to violence as the
world is incomplete without them. Let us heed the call so that a peaceful and prosperous world
can be created where the women is treated with full respect and dignity, every girl is loved and
every family hopes for strong and stable future.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alakbarov, R. & Zeynalli, I. (2017). Evaluation of women rights in the framework of Islamic
legal systems Country case: Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Al-Amoudi, S. M. (2017). Health empowerment and health rights in Saudi Arabia. Saudi medical
journal. 38(8). 785.
Alsuwaida, N. (2016). Women's Education in Saudi Arabia. Journal of International Education
Research. 12(4). 111-118. Arabia, S. (2016). Saudi Arabia Vision 2030. Gazette,
Riyadh Tuesday, 26.
Arabia, S. (2016). Saudi Arabia Vision 2030. Gazette, Riyadh Tuesday, 26.
Saiya, N. (2020). Understanding the differences in the application of the Islamic law between
Muslim-majority countries in the Muslim world: a case study on women's rights in
Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
6

7