This topic is very close to come for me and it's because if you were listening to me in a dark room and nobody told you that I was female, you would typically assume it was a man that was speaking. And so I grew up in the middle of boys, being very comfortable around boys, having a lot of male friends. And I would comfortably say that the very first set of people that validated me even as a girl growing up in Nigeria were my my my friends, my boyfriends. And so I've grown to respect and love and trust men b ...

For this piece, I chose to reflect on gender rights and why they matter, not just in theory, but in real life. Although it's a topic often debated in politics or discussed in the news, I've come to realize that gender rights shape people's everyday experiences more than many of us realize. My understanding of this changed significantly after I spent a few months living in Abu Dhabi in 2023.At first, I will admit I wasn't thrilled to leave Ireland. But after only a few weeks, not just me, but my entire famil ...