The Free bird
This
is still the sad but a true picture of our society in many rural villages and
orthodox families.
You
are a girl, you cannot go to the school, only boys have the privilege;
You need to stay at home and help your mother with household chores.
I
often wonder why is there inequality among boys and girls, men and women?
Why are boys treated as superior and girls as inferior?
Why are only women and girls told to engage themselves in household chores?
Why can't they pursue their higher education?
Why are only boys told to continue their higher studies and pursue their
dreams?
As
per the constitutional right 1 - RIGHT TO EQUALITY, don't both boys and girls
have equal rights? Aren't both equal before the law?
If yes, then why does such kind of
gender discrimination still exist?
WHY DO WE TREAT WOMEN AS INFERIOR?
After all they are the ones who give birth to kings.
Once
upon a time there was a father and her beautiful, loving daughter.
Father: "I will get you married in a very big
house"
Daughter: "No father, you better get me married in a small
house"
Father: "Why dear? Every girl wants to get married in a large
house and live a luxurious life"
Daughter: "I will get tired cleaning such a large house,
Dad"
Father: "Why would you have to clean the house? I will get you
married in a house where you will live like a queen with all the leisures of
life.
Daughter: I am sure mom’s father must have also promised her the
same thing, but all I see her doing all day is cleaning up our big house.
Every
father wants a palace for his daughter. Every son wants a paradise for his
mother but what mostly men miss out on is that the women who gets married to
him has dreams and aspirations too.
Thankfully, times are changing for better.
Now things are not like they were earlier. We have entered into the era of
women empowerment and gender equality.
However, what we wish for all the men is to treat their wives just as they
would want their son-in-law to treat their daughters – with dignity, respect
and let them pursue what they envision for themselves.
Otherwise,
every daughter would grow up dreading the large house.
Let's treat all alike. It is about unbiased loving treatment of all. No superior or inferior
It may come as a surprise but woman suffrage (the right to vote) is a recent historical event, in India (1950) and around the world. My grandparents were in their 20s/30s at that time, which means when they were my age, it was normal for women to not to vote. Yet, today, women still don’t get equal opportunity in jobs, get paid less than men for the same position, and, as you very well pointed out, are discouraged from pursuing same opportunities as men. In the US, blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus, attend separate schools, and drink from different water fountains until the 1960s. Yet, racism still continues today as we see in the news. The caste system was banned in India in 1948 but discrimination against people based on their ancestors and last names still persists in social settings, marriage proposals, and job opportunities. I say all this to say that rules change overnight, but society’s reaction to those rules can take several generations to truly take form. Your generation will do a lot better than past generations in not making these same mistakes and respecting the meaning behind these new rules that protect the rights of people which were otherwise ignored before. Imagine this: LGBTQ rights were only recently recognized and approved in the past decade or so. You and your generation may be comfortable with speaking about this minority group and advocating for their rights and support, but what about the generation that came before you? This is still a sensitive topic but with time and the right rules in place, society will recognize that no matter who we are and where we come from, we are all deserving of honor and respect in this short, beautiful life.
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