The end of the year makes me nostalgic; like an octogenarian, I ruminate on how quickly time passes while watching countdown shows of celebrity disasters and Top Ten music videos. For the past ten years or so, I have made and kept New Year’s resolutions. 2013 is no different.

Except that I came across Robin Thorton’s blog post in which she makes a great point. If we spend time wishing for certain things, then can we also focus on what we don’t want?  Her “unwish list” as she calls it, is of all the things she’d like to undo or leave behind in 2012. I’m borrowing from her post and creating my own list.

1. Unwish brutality against women EVERYWHERE — even here.

From Malala Yousafzai, a fifteen year old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban as she was going to school, to Damini, a woman who died from complications after being sexually assault on a bus in India, 2012 brought out the challenges women still face in most of the world. The west cannot sit back and advise “those other countries”, however, as the film The Invisible War, showed us the trecherous path for women in the U.S. military, where sexual assault is a likely consequence of serving your country. Earlier in the week I read Gabi Klaf’s “I Was Almost Raped Tonight Running Alone at the beach” blog post. Her account is chilling and a reminder that violence towards women permeates every society, class, and creed.

I have other habits I’d like to list but in writing the above paragraph, I see that less is more. If we as a society, globally, locally, and individually, can recognize that women have rights not only under the law but also socially, culturally, morally, then I can’t think of a better change for us to undergo as a civilization.

As the mother of a son, with another son on the way, the teaching of gender equality does not mean women don’t need men (as my Arab students and friends understand feminism) but that they are worthy of the same respect as men.

What would you like to leave behind in 2012? And what will you take into 2013?

Oh, and about that resolution? My New Year’s resolution is to go full throttle into a weekly creativity project. For 2013 this means I will make 52 short films, one a week, for the entire year. Stay tuned, as my first project has women front and center.

Related articles

• Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India – it is endemic everywhere
• 2013 Resolutions: The Power of Your Feelings
• For 2013 Make Sure Your Resolutions Are S.M.A.R.T.
• Person of the Year 2012 Runner-Up: Malala Yousafzai, the Fighter
• [link] Sexual violence is not a cultural phenomenon in India – it is endemic everywhere