Aliyah Sarkar (Photo by Robert Fogarty)
Dear Clinton is a collection of photographs and letters explaining what public service bridge our students are building. This special collection was produced in partnership with Dear World, an innovative photography venture for social good.
Dear President Clinton,
I want to live in a world where we enable each other, further each other and respect each other. I want a world that doesn’t treat women like second-class citizens—as hollow souls without passions and dreams. As a woman and public servant, I am advocating for change to patriarchal structures that hinder the potential of women. I’m over it. I’m over the acceptance, the perpetuation, the system of use and abuse.
More importantly, I’m here to advocate for particularly vulnerable women’s potential. They are not to be pitied and looked at as sad victims. Rather, the potential in them is what I shine a light on. I enable them to be their best selves and their own agent; able to control their circumstance and do as they would like.
I’m over the many systems that oppress, control, and reinforce vulnerability. I’m over consumer culture that exploits women, children and honest men. I’m over war that displaces 2 million people, international battle cries, rape culture, and misconceived notions of women’s rights; a woman is her best self, so long as she has decided what she is doing, wearing, saying, and acting as and I’m over everyone trying to make a decision for her.
Thank you for building a school that has enabled me to build upon my dreams and taught me how to be HER best advocate.
Love,
Aliyah