Going Natural: Curly and beautiful

Every week, I had an appointment at the hair salon to get my hair straightened. I never wondered why I had this appointment. It is a common practice with women in Ethiopia to have these appointments once a week or once every two weeks. It is also common to find beauty salons almost every hundred […]

An Ethiopian’s take on what happened in South Africa

I saw a news piece on TV a few weeks ago that I can’t seem to get out of my mind. It was about South Africa and the ‘xenophobic’ fueled attacks. As an Ethiopian and an African this story hit very close to home for me. We lost the lives of Africans and three of […]

Sustainability is an Issue

Ethiopia is on the top five countries that receive aid in the world, which is right up there with Afghanistan, a country that has been at war for the past decade. I am sure there are many factors that attribute to this. But I feel, a big part of it, is that our work is […]

Deconstruction of Gender Roles

When I had my graduation party two years ago, almost everyone that was invited asked me, “which one is your boyfriend?  When are you getting married?” I was asked so many times that I started to wonder if a degree and a boyfriend were awarded together. When I graduated, getting married was the last thing […]

A Conversation on Gender

There is considerable progress in the area of giving girls from all backgrounds the opportunity they deserve as human beings. As educated women we know and understand our worth and refuse to be put down by chauvinistic ideas, whether those ideologies stem from males or our female counterparts. And that is why it’s important to […]

Is there an Ethiopian Youth Culture?

Youth culture is a way for the young generations to express and live their lives. It’s what I have repeatedly heard from my uncles and aunts about how they conducted themselves, with and in defiance to the existing norms. They shared the stories of what they wore and how they talked with a sense of […]