The first cry out of the mother’s womb and ‘she’ is
considered as the sole burden for the rest of her life. It has been a tough
fight, the fight between who will survive and who would reign. The society has
so far been divided into the dichotomy of gender. A ‘Female’ since ages is
classified in a life that is shameful, useless and barren in its very nature;
that atrocious plight they have been put into since birth. The place we all inhabit
is proud of its heritage and the fragrance of its very culture. But have we
ever thought and analyzed that how life has been treating women across this
planet? Have we ever pondered over millions of the women in the past that had
been a part of the sinful practice as Sati? Have we ever gathered ourselves up
to look out of the comfortable window of our balcony at the maid who works
tirelessly through day and night and yet is treated no better than a mule? No,
we haven’t as we are the only passive agents in the society who have been busy
in the commercialized aspect of time.
It may seem strange to many when I talk about an age old
practice of Sati, in a time like today. But, this is significant to be talked
about as the society has ritually been practicing such acts like witch burning till
seventeenth century and Sati till the end of the nineteenth century but the
important question is that has it been demolished completely or not? Women have
always been silenced to death or drugged and a new category like Subaltern has
been defining them. I actually don’t see such practices coming to an end; in fact
they have been gradually substituted. Probably, if innocent creatures are not
considered as witches but are burnt to death for dowry, or if they become widows
then they are not Sati but they fit into a taboo in the society which configures
them as Divorced/ Separated/Widowed. If the woman today has a boyfriend then
she does not possess a good character, she is wild if she speaks back and she
is raped if she wears the clothes you find revealing. The ultimate question
remains the same; why can’t we as a society let them breathe freely, or why
this tagging is always something which has to happen so naturally.
By such stamping of what role a woman has to play in time,
we are indulged only in conditioning their lives. It is the same society that
takes oath to provide relaxation to women in the fields of education, work, and
in fact allow them to grow out of the shell and walk parallel to the other
gender in the society, yet a woman’s
individuality has sadly been marked on the basis of her relationship status if
put in contemporary context. It is the same society which is constituted of
both females and males, thus it would be somewhere incorrect to blame patriarchy
to be the only unhealthy concept especially today. One cannot blame patriarchy
if we look at the other side of the coin that what a woman is doing for another
woman. When she lay on the road nude and injured did one single woman came to
help her, or to at least see what could she have been facing? It is essential
for one woman to speak for another; it is always the people in the society who
have to help each other so leave alone the questions of man or a woman.
We women need to speak first, before even men speak for us.
We need to fight domestic violence, we need to retreat back if we are forced
for dowry and we need to shout back if we are silenced as Subalterns. We are
women, and we need to prove the strength of this gender and importance of our
living, breaking the barrier of conditioning. It is about every small thing
from the burning, torturing, raping or any such derogatory act, it is for
living and living like a human.
