By: Barnali Bose, Editor-ICN Group
KOLKATA: The Indian scenario has recently been rocking with the breaking news of women’s rights- the protest against violation of the right to dignity, on one hand and the violation of the right granted by the Apex Court to woman devotees to enter a holy place, on the other.
Woman power unleashed:
The #Me too movement has, without doubt, shaken the bastion of male dominance by laying bare, the exploitation of the female counterpart in the workplace. Male actors, an acclaimed writer, a music director, a celebrity manager and a journalist turned politician among many others have been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
Sexual exploitation that had taken place, sometimes even decades ago behind closed doors or drawn curtains have suddenly come into the forefront. The revelation of a Miss India turned female actor who failed to make it big in the Mumbai film industry has led to a volley of accusations being hurled at many more.
Whether the sexual favours were the price paid with consent in some cases, in order to climb the ladder of success or were imposed upon, is quite impossible to fathom due to lack of evidence, such trysts usually being carried out in utmost secrecy.
However, since time immemorial, women having been considered the oppressed rather than the oppressors, the scale weighs heavy in their favour. The accused refuting such allegations are now seen trying to put up a brave front but most definitely spending sleepless nights and scurrying for legal protection.
It is too early to infer what percentage of the accusations are for real and how many of them are to settle scores, but one thing is for real and it is that these revelations have taken the Indian Elite society, by storm.
Whether it will be widespread enough to encourage more women to shed their inhibitions and come out with what they had since long regarded their shame and tried to forget as a bad nightmare, is yet to be seen. This is undoubtedly, a major step towards women empowerment.
Unravelling the other facet of woman empowerment :
Talking of women empowerment, I am in a state of utter perplexity. On one hand, we revolt against injustice meted out to women and on the other hand many of the same gender are seen meting out injustice to other women. They, not only themselves continue wearing the dark veil of century long traditions and beliefs but are holding those who wish to remove them, at scorn.
Recently, the Supreme Court granted women of all ages the right to tread on the premises of the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The said verdict should have been a cause for celebration of the fundamental right to equality. It was so for many but the euphoria of victory was short lived.
Sadly, it is not only the much defamed male traditionalists that have been opposing the verdict, but a large number of women are hands in glove with them, in setting up a wall of defiance against the said verdict.
Isn’t it Progressive Versus Regressive?
What has shocked me is that even young women supposedly progressive in thought and action have not only been protesting but resorting to violence to prevent other women of fertile age from exercising their right to freedom of worship at Sabarimala.
I would like to tell such women, “ Why impose your opinion with an iron hand? Why should you not consider it a personal choice? Why decide on other women’s behalf? Why not allow those women who wish to visit the holy shrine in their prime? Why not so if they are not prepared to wait as you might be ?”
The harsh but blunt truth is that gender inequality has been able to sustain itself in India as many women, even today are unable to shed the age-old gender restrictions imposed upon them in a patriarchal social framework centuries ago.
Thus, not only men, but women too have been often seen to be wary of women empowerment.
Taking a stroll down Amnesia lane:
Let us revert temporarily to the not-so-good old days in Indian society. If we turn the pages of History to the 19th and 20th century, the scenes of Child marriage and Sati, both manifestations of woman oppression in a male-dominated society flash before us.
Men,then, did try their level best to keep women power at bay but succeeded in doing so only with the help of women. It was not seldom that women were both the oppressors and the oppressed.
Sati was an offshoot of Child Marriage, another social evil that existed then. Very young girls, sometimes even a few months old were married off to much older men and subsequently widowed even before the implications of marriage and widowhood dawned upon them.
Marriage and Widowhood were thus,imposed upon them by the so- called self-declared sentinels of Societal traditions.
When Raja Ram Mohan Roy initiated a movement to ban Sati and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar to introduce Widow remarriage,not only men but conservative women of the time also labelled both the social reformers, British agents and traitors of the nation.
Blind traditionalism and oppression knows no gender. It is not only about the male oppressing the female; it could also be the other way round ; it could be one gender oppressing the same gender. Gender is secondary. It is primarily all about power.
Food For thought:
Would it then, be erroneous to say that the #Metoo is a movement of the women, for the women, by the women whereas the #Prepared To Wait@ Sabarimala, a movement by not only men but by women too against women ? Does not an essential contradiction define the two? Isn’t it Progressive Versus Regressive? Why should we pretend to be morally offended at the oppression of women when we, take sadistic pleasure in depriving our own gender of the right to equality? While no sweeping conclusion can be arrived at, but it certainly is food for thought,isn’t it?
