Welcome to a woman’s world. A world that is funny and sad;
happy and heartbreaking all at once. It is a world where crazy meets sane;
error meets redemption and clarity meets confusion. A woman’s world will give
you the safest haven you will ever find and the most comforting embrace that
you will ever get. It stems from years of compassion, kindness, laughter and
joy. It is a canopy of warmth and courage.
Why this preamble you may wonder?! A woman is not all of the
things I have just written about. Indeed the definition of a woman today is
morphed and tangled. An object in a man’s world, we are reduced to being
described by our body size, our looks, our clothes and when all else fails our
reduced and lowly character that screams for attention! After all it’s we who invite
rapes and we who provoke men to have a go at us and seduce them to climb the
ladder of power and success. We make up a segment of society that has been
marginalized from decades by our superior counterpart and despite our years of
struggle our position isn’t much better today. In fact it could be worse
because now we not only suffer from humiliation, scandal, molestation, incest
and all things perverse but somehow find a way to blame ourselves for the
ghastly acts committed to us.
Yes we are all modern women, who are educated, well
employed, and independent. We can fend perfectly well for ourselves. But these
women are never accepted well by society because our independence makes the
patriarchal society uncomfortable who has conditioned us all to believe that
women should be “simple” creatures fulfilling their domesticated role as a
dutiful mother, wife, daughter and sister and have no personal wants and
desires.
We are funny, well informed and super smart. But every time
we do something great, we are pulled back for being a woman. That our merits
are not deserved because we are good, but because as women we must have charmed
or manipulated our way up. And what’s probably egging the situation on is that
we women never stand united against our predator male. We indulge in jealousy,
anger and defame each other in public! So essentially we end up validating men
treating us so low because not all of us treat each other well enough.
Every time we walk on the streets, there will be atleast one
man who is whistling, staring, cat-calling or commenting on us. It does not matter
what we wear, it could be a salwaar kameez, jeans, a dress or even a burka. We
are x-rayed and objectified each time. How ridiculous is the notion that women
call for such attention? How can anyone want this? The recent growth of rapes
in the country surely heightens one fundamental fact, that these men are not
merely getting sexual release off these acts. They mutilate the body of the victim.
So how sick is the society then? You distort a human being’s life, body and
soul and then siphon off the blame onto her only! That you not only maim
someone once but torture and assault them repeatedly. Why does no one talk
about these untamed desires of our men, yes men who gape at girls their
daughter’s age and men who are supposedly minors but that doesn’t stop them
from leering a woman like she’s public property. Society points at prostitution
as a sin. But what does the industry thrive on? MEN!! Had there been no men,
why would women be forced into it. The expectations from a woman thrive so high
that it is a miracle we continue to live out each day and still smile through
it. How can we celebrate International Women’s Day when we are not respected in
our daily lives? How can we continue to live being judged and held accountable
for everything we say, talk and wear!
This is not a rant on the subjugated status of women, but a
narrative on how impossible a situation we are in. There is no freedom really. We
lead half free lives where we like to believe that there is equality and there
is mercy but that is not so. There is a subconscious voice that keeps us on our
toes at all times and every time we hear another story of a fellow woman’s
plight we turn paranoid. What has happened to us? We are all so bright, so
brave, so intelligent and so full of shine. But every step out of the house
leaves us as nothing but a prospective object of hunger, lust and perverted
desire. One stole to cover our body, another to cover our face and pepper spray
to protect us for that one fleeting second. People tell us “do it for your own
self, why tempt the man?!” But no, the reason we really do it is because we are
scared and hope that maybe the preventive measure lessens my chance of being
the next victim. The only hope we have is to stand by each other, through all
the good and bad times and to discover the tiny little silver lining at the end
of this dark road.