Badass Women
With International Women’s Day having just passed, many men and women around the world took time and effort to commemorate the sacrifices and hardships that women have gone through throughout the years. Throughout history, women worldwide have been ostracized due to their size, religion, race, skin color and sexual orientation. In the modern world, this rarely occurs, but the sacrifices women have endured to have the rights that they have today is unbelievable.
Source: sikhiwiki.org
One story in particular, is about a Sikh woman named Mai Bhago. Mai Bhago led 40 Sikh soldiers against the Mughals in 1705. She killed several enemy soldiers on the battlefield, and is considered to be a saint warrior by the Sikh community. In 1705, she was distressed to hear that 40 male Sikh soldiers of her village neighborhood who had gone to fight in the war against the Mughals had deserted under adverse conditions. Mai Bhago then scolded the men for deserting and rallied them to fight in the Battle of Muktsar.
Source: sikhiwiki.org
When the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh Ji visited the battlefield at the end of the battle, he found her lying on top of a heaping pile of dead Mughals, barely clinging to life. The Guru forgave the forty Sikhs for their moment of weakness, and was so pumped up about how hardcore Mai Bhago was that he gave her a healing potion and brought her into his service as one of his personal bodyguards. She spent the rest of her life traveling with the Guru, serving as a warrior-saint of the Sikh religion. Mai Bhago is now revered among her people as a holy warrior who offered disgraced warriors a chance at redemption and fought bravely in the defense of her people.
Many other women of different backgrounds have also given their lives to the cause of gender equality. It is now our job to make sure that those sacrifices do not go in vain.
