My Body Is Not A Political Playground: Samirah Raheem

The word 'slut' is often used to shame women. However, various people, as well as organisations, are making efforts to redefine the word 'slut' and to point out the social injustice women have to face with respect to their choices as well as sexual preferences.

Last year the Amber Rose SlutWalk which was held in Los Angeles witnessed a very interesting face-off between model Samirah Raheem and American conservative talk show host and pastor, Jesse Lee Peterson. A video clip of the conversation from Los Angeles' 2017 SlutWalk has resurfaced now and has garnered Raheem a whole a lot of attention.

What happened?

According to a report by Indy 100, Peterson attended the SlutWalk last year and went around asking women, on camera, if they were sluts. While many women responded to him, Raheem's response remained by far the best. She said that everyone is a slut including he himself, the people around them, the cameraman, his PA and even his mic.

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He didn't stop here and asked her as to what made her a slut to which she said "Because I own my body. My body is not a political playground. It's not a place for legislation. It's mine and it's my future."

"Because I own my body. My body is not a political playground. It's not a place for legislation. It's mine and it's my future."

Peterson asked her how old she was and she stole hearts by saying "Grown."

He also asked her, “Why would god want you to be a slut?” to which she said, “He would want me to be whatever I want to be cuz god believes in choice and you should know that Jesse that's why you’re allowed to wear this lame ass shirt.”

Social media applauds Raheem

Her level of sass and confidence made people fall in love with her instantly. The video which was uploaded on YouTube in October last year went viral after a Twitter user shared it just a few days ago. Her tweet was retweeted for over 137,000 times and garnered 359,000 likes.

“why would god want you to be a slut?”
“he would want me to be whatever I want to be cuz god believes in choice and you should know that jesse thats why you’re allowed to wear this lame ass shirt”

god bless her, amen to everything she said and fuck jesse in the striped shirt https://t.co/VANUMO9rjc

— justine (@biticonjustine) July 12, 2018

An icon exuding GROWN ENERGY, Queen of her body, and showing the world we are all sluts! Ya mama a slut, PA a slut, that microphone a slut! Jesse and his lame ass shirt will learn to deal. Today we stan Samirah Raheem: Queen! 👑 pic.twitter.com/K57gPt5Mrd

— Jake Trill’nhaal (@_DocSoos) July 13, 2018

Samirah's Instagram following also increased dramatically. Showing gratitude she put up an Instagram post.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlLgV4PAGL_/?utm_source=ig_embed

Amber Rose SlutWalk

The Amber Rose SlutWalk is a platform, which is used by activists to 'entertain, educate and empower' people around them. It's a day festival is held to raise awareness about sexual injustice and gender inequality. SlutWalk was first started in Toronto in 2011 with a group of young activists. The walk gained exposure when model Amber Rose joined the cause reported Newsweek.

The festival also has a lot of fun activities like contests and giveaways, vendors, speakers, performances, live DJs, sign making, educational booths, photo fun, HIV testing and much more.

Samirah is an example of how one needs to put forward their opinions and deal with people who refuse to respect women and their choices.

Picture Credit: BloomJoy Collective

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Kriti Dwivedi is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv