She Spoke When Silence Was Safer | She Chose to Rise: The Podcast

In the premiere episode of She Chose to Rise: The Podcast, host Mariatu Esther Kabba shares the deeply personal story that inspired the podcast and the anthology of the same name. Reflecting on growing up in Sierra Leone, she explores the cost of silence, the courage it takes to speak the truth, and the quiet moment that changed the course of her life. This opening episode sets the stage for a global series of powerful conversations with women who chose to rise — even when silence felt safer.

Hosted by Mariatu Esther Kabba | A Global Rise & Soar Production
Produced in partnership with Engage Salone

Transcript

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Before I ever thought about microphones or books or podcasts, I learned something very early in life. Silence can feel like safety. I am Mariatsu and This is She Choose to Rise, a global storytelling and annual book project. A global rise and soil production in partnership with Engage Saloon. In many places around the world, especially for women, silence is taught as protection. Don't speak too loudly. Don't ask too many questions or don't name what happened because speaking can cost you everything. And yet, silence also has a cost. In She Chose to Rise, we are telling stories of women who have made one quiet, dangerous, but courageous decision to speak when silence would have been safer. This series was born from a book, an anthology of women from around the world writing about moments that changed their lives. But before there was a book, there was a question I couldn't stop asking. What happens when women are finally heard? Not as statistics, not as headlines, but as full human beings. In this first episode, I want to begin at the beginning, with why this project exists at all, and with my own very story. I grew up in Sierra Leone, West Africa, a country shaped by resilience, faith, and survival, but also by deep silence around pain, power, and gender. Like many girls, I learned very early that some truths we are just too dangerous to say out loud. There was a moment in my life when speaking felt like betrayal. Betrayal of family expectations, betrayal of cultural norms, betrayal of a version of myself that was expected to endure quietly. I didn't have the language for what I was experiencing, but I knew something was wrong. I was young, I was ambitious, and I was being punished for both. When I tried to name what was happening, to ask questions, to try, you know, to push back, I learned very quickly how unsafe honesty could be. In many societies, silence is not neutral. It is enforced. Silence protects systems, silence protects repetitions, it protects power. But when women decide to speak anyway, the consequences are really small. I lost stability, I lost access, I lost safety, but again something else. Clarity. There is a moment, quiet, almost invisible, when you realize you cannot survive by shrinking anymore. That moment doesn't feel heroic. It feels terrifying, very terrifying. For me, choosing to speak wasn't about being brave, it was about refusing to disappear. Years later, after working in media, um, education and women's empowerment across countries and cultures, I realized something stalling. My story wasn't unique. Everywhere I went, every woman I spoke with, whether from Bangladesh, Ukraine, Brazil, Djibouti, Romania, the United States, women were telling different stories, but describing the same moment. The moment they chose themselves, the moment they spoke. The moment silence up being an option. This podcast is not about trauma for shock value. It's not about victimhood. And it's definitely not about inspiration that ignores complexity. She chose to rise is about agency, about consequence, and what it actually costs and gives to live in truth. In the episodes ahead, you will hear from women who have survived war, broken cultural silence, challenged beauty standards rebuilt after illness, and led within systems never designed for them. Their stories are not tidy, but they are honest. If there is one thing I hope you take from this first episode, it's this. Speaking doesn't always change the world immediately. Sometimes it only changes you. But that change is where everything begins. Next time you'll hear from Olga in Ukraine a woman rising while our country is breaking, and what it means to choose hope in the middle of uncertainty. I am Maria Tzu, and this is She Choose to Rise, a global rise in swell production and partnership with Engage Saloon. Until next time, rise.