I want men to take up this mantle so that their daughters, sisters, and mothers can be free from prejudice, but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too, reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned, and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.
You might be thinking, Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN? And, its a really good question. Ive been asking myself the same thing.
All I know is that I care about this problem, and I want to make it better. And, having seen what Ive seen, and given the chance, I feel it is my responsibility to say something.
Statesman Edmund Burke said, All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.
In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt, I told myself firmly, If not me, who? If not now, when? If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words will be helpful. Because the reality is that if we do nothing, it will take seventy-five years, or for me to be nearly 100, before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. Fifteen and a half million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children. And at current rates, it won't be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education.
If you believe in equality, you might be one of those inadvertent feminists that I spoke of earlier, and for this, I applaud you. We are struggling for a uniting word, but the good news is, we have a uniting movement. It is called HeForShe. I invite you to step forward, to be seen and to ask yourself, If not me, who? If not now, when?
Thank you very, very much.
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***not actually a communist, only dirty on occasion