This is an article I wrote for my school magazine, unedited.(Special thanks to my friend, Sharanya, who read through this, and gave it her approval, as well as some edits)
As a funeral pyre stands dark and imposing in the background,a young man, who had died in a war, sometime in the 18th century, is being taken to be cremated .Pundits chant as the family stands around in mourning. As his body is placed on the funeral pyre, his wife, half-drugged and hardly conscious, is placed there alongside him. Before she can do anything, even say a word or scream, the fire is lit, and it catches onto her Sari, as she is set on fire. Even if she screams, no one is willing to help her. Soon, the bodies are merely ashes. The dead man’s, and his living wife’s.
This is Sati, a practice that emerged in the Sangam period (2nd century BCE - 2nd Cent. CE), or earlier in ancient India, as a way for the wife to remain with the husband even in death and was completely voluntary. But, like so many other practices and traditions, men started taking control of it, and it became a compulsory act for a man's wife (or if he had multiple wives as was the case with the richer men, at least a few) to perform.
This is just one example of how men have oppressed women over the centuries. From the time of the hunter gatherer, all the way to the 21st century, women being considered inferior or being oppressed is an everyday thing. In the United States, women fought to vote, as well as in the UK. In India, widow remarriage and Sati were fiercely fought against. But unless some feminist men stepped forward (and let me clarify here that feminism merely means supporting women's rights and especially a right to equality) and helped the women out in their fight, things usually stayed the way they were. That's not to say that women haven't been able to do anything without men. The Chipko movement in the Western Ghats began because of women. There have been powerful women leaders, like Razziya Sultana of Delhi, whose father recognized her to be far superior a ruler to any of her brothers, or the second last monarch of China, the Empress Tzu Si.
But by and large women have had to fight for what they deserve. From equal pay for work, to equal opportunities, women have always had to bear these inequalities. When a child is born, the mother is expected to take maternity leave, and sacrifice everything for the child, while the father can do as he likes, in the eyes of the law. Except for a few communities, the overall view is that the father needs to earn, and the mother needs to look after the child, sacrificing the next 16-18 years of her life. Luckily such views are changing and working mothers are more prominent. The possibility of two women or two men raising a child without the opposite gender being involved is an option that has become more viable over the years. Women are getting what they deserve, from men's attitudinal changes, to equality in the workplace. Unfortunately women still face things that are unfair, like harassment and prejudice but the fact that world view is changing drastically has helped women everywhere to become more independent and stronger.
As a funeral pyre stands dark and imposing in the background,a young man, who had died in a war, sometime in the 18th century, is being taken to be cremated .Pundits chant as the family stands around in mourning. As his body is placed on the funeral pyre, his wife, half-drugged and hardly conscious, is placed there alongside him. Before she can do anything, even say a word or scream, the fire is lit, and it catches onto her Sari, as she is set on fire. Even if she screams, no one is willing to help her. Soon, the bodies are merely ashes. The dead man’s, and his living wife’s.
This is Sati, a practice that emerged in the Sangam period (2nd century BCE - 2nd Cent. CE), or earlier in ancient India, as a way for the wife to remain with the husband even in death and was completely voluntary. But, like so many other practices and traditions, men started taking control of it, and it became a compulsory act for a man's wife (or if he had multiple wives as was the case with the richer men, at least a few) to perform.
This is just one example of how men have oppressed women over the centuries. From the time of the hunter gatherer, all the way to the 21st century, women being considered inferior or being oppressed is an everyday thing. In the United States, women fought to vote, as well as in the UK. In India, widow remarriage and Sati were fiercely fought against. But unless some feminist men stepped forward (and let me clarify here that feminism merely means supporting women's rights and especially a right to equality) and helped the women out in their fight, things usually stayed the way they were. That's not to say that women haven't been able to do anything without men. The Chipko movement in the Western Ghats began because of women. There have been powerful women leaders, like Razziya Sultana of Delhi, whose father recognized her to be far superior a ruler to any of her brothers, or the second last monarch of China, the Empress Tzu Si.
But by and large women have had to fight for what they deserve. From equal pay for work, to equal opportunities, women have always had to bear these inequalities. When a child is born, the mother is expected to take maternity leave, and sacrifice everything for the child, while the father can do as he likes, in the eyes of the law. Except for a few communities, the overall view is that the father needs to earn, and the mother needs to look after the child, sacrificing the next 16-18 years of her life. Luckily such views are changing and working mothers are more prominent. The possibility of two women or two men raising a child without the opposite gender being involved is an option that has become more viable over the years. Women are getting what they deserve, from men's attitudinal changes, to equality in the workplace. Unfortunately women still face things that are unfair, like harassment and prejudice but the fact that world view is changing drastically has helped women everywhere to become more independent and stronger.
No comments:
Post a Comment