I quite agree with the view that women today have come a long
way compared to their great grandmothers or even in certain cases, their
mothers, in almost all countries in the world. But has the fundamental gender
gap, in terms of access to all types of opportunities, altered that much, even
in the most developed societies in the world? Can we leave out of our
understanding the glaring injustice meted out unchallenged in most of the
Islamic countries of the world? Or the condition of women in countries torn by
war or internal strife where they are still considered as the spoils of war? Or
the torture inflicted on girls and women by their immediate families in
countries like India if they ever dare to venture outside the boundaries
carefully drawn for them by the patriarchal societies? Can we close our eyes to
the discrimination of women in our workplaces, be it in the high pinnacle of
academics or the chrome and glass office building that house highly skilled men
and women in finance or law or information technology? Because these are the
ground realities that we systematically refuse to see, blinded by the
brilliance of a handful of women in public spheres and by the mantle of silence
that surrounds the sorry tales of injustice and discrimination against women
who are not in the lime light and remain the ‘hidden figures’ of human
progress.
Nothing was handed out to women on a silver platter by
benevolent males running all the power structures in different societies. Women
had to fight every inch of the way for obtaining rights that should have been
theirs naturally. The right to vote, to own property, to work, to choose the
kind of life they wanted to live, to have total control over their bodies and
their sexuality. I think that the essential reason for the intolerance to the
feminist movement today is because of this last factor – women wanting to
totally own and celebrate their sexuality as a means for empowerment. The
reason is very clear. The patriarchal societies have always been frightened of
the power of female sexuality – numerous social rules and norms were imposed on
women in almost all societies to curb and undermine them. Since the beginning
of history, man has endeavored to control the female body through edicts and
customs and myths and stories, sorting them out into neat little squares,
defining a specific role at each stage of life – daughter, sister, wife, and
mother essentially – with specific duties designed to serve the male dominated
society. Sexual relationships were designed to produce off springs, preferably
males, to carry on the blood line of the progenitors. Any behavior outside this
norm was ostracized, as it continues even today, though in a modified form. It
was all right for men to lust after women – there were ‘fallen women’ galore,
living on the verges of the mainstream society, to cater to their needs. Women
stayed at home, serving to uphold the straight and narrow end of patriarchal
societies.
It is easy to imagine the consternation of our male dominated
societies by the Feminist movement today. Women have finally figured out where
their real power lies – the refusal to perpetuate the male dominance in modern
societies. They want to have total control on their bodies, over their sexual
preferences and their sexual partners. They want to have the freedom of having
or not having children, they want to change the unequal balance of power
between men and women which is, and always has been, biological. This is the
chain that needs to be broken, simply to give women the freedom of choice –
something they still have not achieved.
Aparajita Sen
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