Do I want to be a girl/woman again?

This one particular question has crossed through my head several times till date. The first time this question popped in my head was when I was in school in fifth standard and all the girls were asked to stay back during the games/activity duration to understand about menstruation. The topic was necessary to understand but to a girl child who is 12 year old, games activities duration was much more important as she could barely understand what her teacher was trying to explain. The second and third times this particular question came was when I was expected to attend school and pay attention when I was menstruating. I used to get angry at the site of a boy or a man and question my mom, "Why don't boys or men bleed the way I do?" and my mom used to say," This is how it is; every girl is going or has gone through this". Most recently I was reminded of this question; I heard stories of women who had been abused by a man-a stranger, a fellow, a friend, a colleague-and I wondered "Do I want to be a girl/woman again? Isn't it easier to be born a boy/man? You get all the privileges from the society, no menstruation or no fear to travel alone at night or anywhere at any time!"

But this is just a question. The problem is how we do tackle such a question? YES, I do not want to be treated any different from a boy/man in a society, YES I want to feel safe if I want to take a walk by myself at night, YES I want to be able to enjoy myself when I am out with any friend/fellow/colleague and not worry that something bad may happen. But NO, I do not want to change my gender for all those things. I want to make myself more capable to be able to change and challenge the norms/policies/ways in which a girl and a woman is treated so that no girl or woman ever has this question in her mind.