Emancipation of women

Nimit Suri
When in a recent foot in mouth comment, Mulayam Singh Yadav advocated rape as a forgivable mistake by young testosterone high lads, he reminded of a famous scene that was often played in old movies in which a helpless unmarried woman carrying an infant reaches the door of child’s wealthy father for acceptance but instead is humiliated by a insulting patriarch who rubbishes his son’s action as nothing but a mistake. He further labels the woman immoral and shows her the door. Understandably, such scenes were included to give maximum retributive pleasure to the audience when later in the movie the same infant grows up to be protagonist who seeks some form of justice for him in the end. In real life, Mulayam Singh represents the one living form of such patriarchs existing in the society.  His opinions point at the ubiquitous mindset which has been oppressive to woman since the time of Greeks and Romans.
Famous Greek philosopher Aristotle portrayed women as morally, intellectually, and physically inferior to men; saw their role in society nothing more than only to reproduce and serve men in the household. Ancient Roman society which was relatively more evolved than any other place was also known to be highly patriarchal.
Since that time the struggle for woman emancipation has seen considerable gains but the progress has been slow and skewed. We still have places where young girls like Malala Yousafzai are putting their life at risk for basic right of education.  Situation is equally grim if not worst in India where majority of woman do not have a good quality life. Birth of a female child is seldom celebrated. She is mostly not considered a natural heiress apparent. After a particular age she is supposed to dress and talk in a peculiar manner. It’s odd for her to be talking to men or bring them home. Sex or pregnancy before marriage is considered as a shameful and banishing act only attributed to immoral woman. From birth to marriage she is readied to find a potential groom. Marriage advertisements inviting proposals from prospective grooms in the news papers still sound like as if a commodity has been laid on the table for selling- fair, beautiful, homely, convent educated, etc describes the girl. Thanks to the social contraptions most of the women resign silently to fate and ironically teach same behavior to their daughters.
Worst is faced by less privileged woman living in rural areas who are subjected to continuous atrocities. Be it rape, domestic violence, dowry deaths, trafficking or sexual harassment; thanks to poverty, illiteracy and absence of justice, a rural woman is more vulnerable to such crimes. Shortly after Delhi gang rape, which outraged the complete nation, three school going sisters aged 11, 8 and 6 of  Murmadi village in Lakhani town of Bhandara district in Maharashtra were raped, murdered and their bodies were thrown into a well. Criminals are still at bay. It is not an isolated incident; numerous assaults on woman in rural areas go unreported just because woman is financial or socially incapable to fight for justice. The rhetoric of women empowerment and justice has been going on for years now but very less will be achieved by legislations unless social structure is reformed and mindset is society towards woman is transformed. This will require dismantling of parochial social structure built over the years and reassigning woman’s role in it. Should woman enjoy freedom at par with men entirely depends if men is ready to give up his territory to woman; which means a probable role reversal where woman can be a breadwinner and men may raise kids. This election all parties are vociferous of woman empowerment but it is doubtful that the one preaching equality for woman from the position of power is willing to relinquish the same to a woman. Probably that’s why only seven  percent of total candidates nominated for Lok Sabha elections 2014 are women.
Sixteen year old Malala Yousafzai who was shot in the head by Taliban for advocating education for girls in Swat district of Pakistan, where Taliban had banned girls from attending school, was raised and educated by her father like a son. The girl later survived to become a youth icon and inspiration for others. When her father is asked as to how have he raised Malala to be fearless and mature, his reply is intriguing – “I did nothing, I just did not clip her wings”. To change a society deep rooted in prejudices – this could be a start.

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