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If men don't need to control, women won't have to be controlled.

It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.

We should stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are.

We can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about.

It's about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle so their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human, too and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.

You might think, 'Who is this Harry Potter girl? What is she doing at the U. N.?'

And it's a really good question - I've 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 I've seen and given the chance, I feel 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 my moments of doubt, I've told myself firmly, 'If not me, who? If not now, when?' If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope that those words will be helpful because the reality is, if we do nothing, it will take 75 years or for me, to be nearly 100, before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work - 15.5 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 that we have a uniting movement.

It is called HeForShe.

I am inviting 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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