In Mahabharata, Gandhari ties a piece of cloth over her eyes, going blind voluntarily because her husband Dhritarashtra was blind. Great ! She is much revered and the Gods gift her with special powers since she did this. The question though is, what if she had been blind ? Would Dhritarashtra have tied a cloth over his eyes going voluntarily blind ? I don’t think anyone will disagree with a “No”. There is not a single incident like Draupadi getting disrobed, where women sat around discussing the merits and demerits, thank GOD, literally, that Draupadi never got disrobed !!
The point I am making is – crime against women is a reality since time immemorial, even in an advanced society like the old Indian civilization where women chose their husbands and in the current more barbaric civilization, where we have had a woman as the leader of our country for several decades. Yesterday, I participated in a protest against crime against women, where nearly 200 people (cyclists and walkers) presented signatures to the president of India, another woman …. Right through the walk the thought crossing my mind was – we women, get played. Its not just Draupadi that had to contend with 5 husbands, a woman got her to do that, think again if there are examples of the reverse and there are none. We all have more than 5 men – father, brothers, uncles, friends, sons… And we prefer to give birth to sons, we want our daughters to give birth to sons, we don’t feel safe late evening, we can’t wear fewer clothes, we get raped, we get groped in parties, we lose weight so men would find us attractive, we need to stay home and bring up the children and also keep working to bring the extra money in … I can go on.
Women need liberation from themselves, and men need to be allowed and taught to grow up. Are mothers listening ? Mothers especially because they bring the men into this world. Just as you prepare your daughter for living in this big bad world, get your son to grow up.
Are you making this comment in Delhi about Indian culture, in Dubai about Arabian culture, in Rio de Janiero about Latin culture in Johanesburg about South African culture in Dallas about American culture. Methinks the issue is more genetic than it is cultural and yes mothers and fathers of the world need to wake up and take full responsibility for the outcome of their offsprings. There may be some slight glimmer of home as expressed by Caribbean women especially grandmothers who do not hesitate to slap their sons upside their heads often and publicly when they mess up. God bless our grandmothers.
Don, am happy to read about grandmoms reprimanding their errant sons, wish we have more of them !! Your comment made me think… In India grandmoms are often super indulgent with all their grandchildren, more so with the grandsons. So am sure genetics and culture plays a part. But one common thread is, across countries/cultures women generally get the raw deal more often than men and how they allow bad behaviour of their sons, because they indulge them more than the daughters.