To the Fijian women candidates...

I've been wanting to write to you for a while. A few months now.

I don't know where to begin. I'm not sure how to express my mixed feelings and thoughts but here it is. An attempt.

I wanted to say, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that the perception of your leadership will be tied primarily to you being a woman.

I'm sorry that your ability to lead is reflected in how good of a mother you are.

I'm sorry that the paradigm of your commitment is the strength of your marriage. It's duration. It's history.

I'm sorry that your expertise and knowledge will be restricted to women's issues as if they are unrelated to or alien from education, health, employment and poverty.

 How will you help women? How will you improve the number of women in leadership? What is your opinion on the state of maternal health in Fiji? Teenage pregnancy? What are your thoughts on abortion? Sex work? What is it like being a mother and a political candidate at the same time?

I'm sorry that your male counterparts will rarely hear these questions, if ever. I'm sorry that when it comes time to address these questions, you will probably not be in that room.

I'm sorry that you will be forced to run the gauntlet as men stroll into the political arena.

I'm sorry that you will become fodder for the rumour mills of Chat Fiji and Fiji Exposed Forum. I'm sorry that your sexuality will be questioned and your morality tied to it. Your past relationships. Your sex life.

I'm sorry that the shape of your hair, the volume of make-up on your face and level of physical attractiveness will be called to question.

I'm sorry that your state of dress will be monitored severely. I'm sorry that you receive rape threats. I'm sorry that you will be slut-shamed. I'm sorry that you will be called names.

I'm sorry.

But also.

I wanted to say, thank you.

Thank you for the fleck of inspiration that will light up the eyes of girls and young women,

to see you stand as a leader.

Thank you for celebrating the strength and diversity of women,

not as a shining crystal of morality, an unconscious bleeding heart of female compassion

but as someone with experience, ideas and perceptions that represent the half of the population

that is largely under-represented, valued for roles within the confines of society's perceptions

 and demonised for moving beyond them.

Thank you for shifting the figures, turning the tide towards another woman at the table of decisions

in a country where they make up the majority of the table of statistics as the victims and survivors of a sex crime and abuse

Thank you for bearing the scars, bruises and hurt as you take apart the glass ceiling,

so that the woman and girl that follows after may soar beyond the jagged edges of the shattered ceiling.

Thank you for not yielding. Thank you for challenging.

Thank you.

I wish you all good luck.