Gender Equality and International Women's Day - An Oxymoron

8th March-The day started like any other day.
I could see a lot of establishments like saloons,Eatouts,Clothing stores throwing offers for women,encouraging them to buy more or promoting their services.

Even some hospitals in the city came forward with offers like Free medical checkup for women.

In my work place,our cubicles were decorated with balloons(for all women employees),
we have been given some chocolates and flowers.

To my astonishment,pubs and discos,declared to have ladies night for the entire week..

My question is "Why do we need women's day at all?.."

Answer 1:This day celebrates the life of a woman who faces hardships with her inner strength..

It was from a feminist friend of mine.

I think she is mistaken.Facing hardships with inner strength is something,
which is done by almost every living organism in this Earth.Another answer came like,
by celebrating women's day,we are saluting the bravery of women,who came forward to work,and for making an independent living.

Again,every creature does that..what is so special about it.

Here comes another answer,by celebrating this,the sociobiological status of women has improved.

Hmm..Not really...

Here is a shattering fact,

In this world,

1.64% of the illiterates are women.
2.Two thirds of the children are denied education are girls.Nearly,41 million girls are denied education.
3.Gender-based violence causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15-44 than cancer,malaria, traffic accidents and war.
4.60 million girls are sexually assaulted at or en route to school.In Afghanistan and Pakistan,Employed women receives death threats,asking them to leave their jobs.For the victims who commit adultery,men will be given 100 lashes and women stoning till death.Women are highly discouraged from entering politics by assasinating them.(Benazir Bhutto,Pakistan).Mass destruction of Girl's schools in East Pakistan etc
5.75% of civilians killed in war are women and children.
6.Very few countries criminalized marital rape(Check IPC 376 section,so nebulous)
7.Many countries permits polygyny.

UN peacekeeper Patrick Cammaert said,

 ‘It is now more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in modern conflict’.

Look at the verity in his words.

Are the women of East (Afghanistan,Iran,Libya,Somalia etc),aware of Women's day?

Are the feminist aware of the increasing number of domestic violence (physical,sexual and emotional abuse by spouse) victims?

Eventhough the era of women employment begun in early 20th century.they were never given a right to vote,even in the so called developed nations like England,U.S.A etc.
Is it like i cannot decide or choose my representative?

After a terrible fight by the suffragists,women were given the right to vote.
(FYI even now,Saudi Arabia women cannot vote or drive)

Remember Freedom is never granted,It is always Won.

Even now Women of U.K has the following obstacles ahead of them..

1.700,000 people (90% of whom are females) experience domestic violence
2.Equal pay is almost as distant as it as when the Sex Discrimination Act was passed in1975
3.Conviction for rape cases hovers at around 6-7%
4.Only 12% of the company board members are women(avg)
5.Only 19% of MPs are women

Coming to the medical problems,

fatal diseases like Sexually Transmitted disease(STD) are transformed to women,
only from their SPOUSE.

There is also an alarming increase in the number of victims of Mortality rate during child birth,marital rape,Female Genetal mutilation,Breast cancer,cervical cancer etc.

When are we going to stop barbaric practices like stoning,FGM etc..?

What i suggest is,for example a clothing store instead of giving offers to women who can very well afford,can give clothing(atleast 5 to 10% or from old stock) to women who are below the poverty line.
The same kind of idea is suggested for Eatouts,hospitals or any other service industry.
Medical aware camps can be organised instead spending so much on ladies night clubs.

I contribute some money,to a school(for both boys and girls) every month,which provides world class education to the kids from slums...
WHAT IS YOUR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY?

Sultana's Dream

Any Indian works worth blogging?

Why not?I find some of the Indian books highly intellectual,(I admire them deeply because of their reforming nature)but here you will not find any stereotype books or novels written by Indians or about India.

Inner voice:Ah..we know that..you just love controversies..dont you?

well..yes..Truth is always bitter..better swallow it..lol:)Now..how about a Indian science fiction,written in 1905..?

Before I proceed,I suggest you to browse more on all these posts,once u read it here,rather than ducking it as such.
Because when you browse more you get many versions of the same story and chances of Enlightenment are high,on getting multiple versions.

Sultana's dream was a short story written by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain,daughter of a highly educated Landlord(zamindar) and wife of a Deputy Magistrate Khan Bahadur Sakhawat Hussain(in British India).She was a writer,a feminist as well as a social reformer.

                                    
Her work was a science fiction as told earlier,actually it was a feminist science fiction.
duh..Science fiction in 1905?Before going any further i would like to make some points about this (one of the) treasure(s) of Bengali literature...

Even though Begum Rokeya was brought up in a orthodox and intensely conservative environment,her father permitted only religious education in Persian,Arabic and Urdu,She managed to learn English as well as Bengali  along with her sister from her Elder brother(Her Sister turn out to be a poet in Bengali..kudos to her brother).

She got married to Sakhawat Hussain at the age of 16.Her husband was taken aback when she made him read her literary work Sultana's Dream.He couldnot resist it,read it in a full stretch and commented it as "a terrible revenge".
But he persuaded her to send it to a Madras based magazine.

What is so special about it..?Here you go..

1.She backed role reversing principle(Not the one you see in Hollywood movies like hero and heroine's soul interchanged).She argues that why women are meant for Household work and men for social work.

2.In this story,she imagines a country,where women are the bread winners and men do the kitchen work.The country will be ruled by a Queen and no men can be seen in the streets as they are kept locked inside.Women are highly educated,they have got two competing universities,mastering science and research,inventing hydrogen based Air craft for locomotion(to avoid accidents on roads) and Electricity from solar energy(even for their kitchen).

3.The country will have an amazing ambiance,full of gardens and perfectly planned infrastructure,designed by women of city council.

4.They will not have any police force or courts,since men are kept inside,crime rate is zero there.

5.She uses humor,irony and satire,through out the story,to explain how women got such status.It has also got a sound economy,since women are more productive then men(but how..?She says men wastes most of their work time by smoking,discussing etc).Women there,finishes their work by 2 to 3 hrs a day and dedicate time to their family..(Amazing;))

6.Finally,They also make a statement that,they dont make trade with a country,which enslaves women.
(Really a terrible revenge..)

I know what you will feel now..Women-longing for such country and men-making their blood boil..?

Now the consequences she faced..

1.She was excommunicated from her religion.

2.The bitterness went to an extent that,religious clerics denied to bury her corpse in their common burial ground.

3.What next,Her school was shut down by her step-daughter's husband claiming inheritance,later she re-opened it.(It is to be noted that,the school was started in 1911 with 5 students and recently they celebrated 100th year now with 1300 students and 60 faculty)

Feel like reading Sultana's Dream..?
http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a1128.pdf

Begum Rokeya inspired and changed the lives of thousands of women in the Bengal presidency of the British Regime in India and even after ten decades her works are praised.

Bengali authors like Taslima Nasreen(Currently Bangladeshi),Radheshyam Brahmachari and so many claim to be inspired by her..

“Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Give every opportunity a chance, leave no room for regrets.”


Long live Begum Rokeya in our hearts....


By the way..Next blog would be on travelling...
Im gearing up for a trip...

Annie's Box

I happen to read "Annie's Box",a biography,written by Randal Hume Keynes,a British conservationist.

It begins with the story of a father and his daughter Anne,who happen to be the apple of her proud father's eye and after her tragic death,it explains how the desperate father Charles proposed a revolutionary theory,

by proving him an eminent scientist,whose findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussions.

The story goes like this..

Charles was born in Shrewsbury in England on the 12th of February, 1809. His father was a wealthy doctor and financier. Although Robert was a freethinker, Charles was baptized in the Anglican Church in keeping with his mother Susannah's religious beliefs. Charles had 5 siblings and they attended the day school run by the preacher of a Unitarian Chapel.

Charles's father being himself a paramedic always wanted his son to be a medico.

But due to Charles superfluity of interest in taxidermy, natural history, marine biology, botany and zoology he became a Naturalist.

In 1837, Charles visited his maternal cousins. That was where he first met Emma. She was nine months older to him.

During 1838, he kept on falling ill on and off. It was during this time, that he began to contemplate marriage. He wanted to marry Emma, but kept putting it off. He even visited her once in July 1838, but did not propose.

Finally proposed to Emma by the year end,she accepted. They were happily married in January 1839.

They were blessed with ten children(OMG)..

Anne Elizabeth Shortly "Annie" was born on 2 March 1841.She was the second child and eldest daughter of  the delighted couple. According to Keynes, she was a delightful child who brought much happiness to her parents.

"Anne was... the apple of her proud father's eye, his favourite child, he confessed to" [his friend and cousin William] . "More than any of the other children she treated him with a spontaneous affection that touched him deeply; she liked to smooth his hair and pat his clothes into shape, and was by nature self-absorbedly neat and tidy, cutting out delicate bits of paper to put away in her workbox, threading ribbons, and sewing small things for her dolls and make-believe worlds."

Isn't she the cutest thing..

In 1849,A terrible storm wiped out the couple's household harmony.Anne caught scarlet fever and her health thereafter declined; some believes that she suffered from tuberculosis.Despite of their Intensive treatment,she died in Montreal House on the Worcester Road, and is buried in the Great Malvern Priory Church yard.


Her premature death was a terrible blow for her parents even though the death of a young children were still all too common in Victorian times.

Charles wrote in a personal memoir.. 

"We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age.... Oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still and shall ever love her dear joyous face."

What next..??

The death of Anne left him devastated and destroyed any feeling he had within himself about a benevolent God and told to his fellow friends that

 "an Agnostic would be a more correct description of my state of mind."

Whenever any of his other children fell ill, he greatly feared that his children may have inherited weaknesses.
This was because Emma was his cousin. 


and that made him study the effects of inbreeding among the species.


After Anne's death,he made several voyages to the coast of South America land and collected a variety of fossils and specimens of living organisms, studied many a geological features and made extensive notes. 
These were later published as ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’.


Could you guess the name of this great scientist??


if you didn't so far,soon you will..


Charles observed in this voyage, that the landmasses were rising with the passage of time. He concluded this by observing the geological strata, marine and plant life, fossils and observing the variety of birds present on the islands of South America.

Studying the mockingbirds and tortoises in the area, the theory of the origin of the species began to take root in his mind. Meanwhile Charles kept sending back specimens and letters describing his findings, which became greatly admired.


Origin of the species??if u say OMG.. its Charles Darwin..BINGO:)

                                                    
Throughout this time Charles was working on his theory of natural selection. However, he feared revealing the theory to the world at large because he saw the critics debunk similar theories posed by other scientists such as Alfred Russel Wallace. Also several prominent scientists of the time like Thomas Henry Huxley were dead set against evolution.


Finally,


In November 1859, his book The Origin of Species was published and was sold out. The book generated a lot of controversy and criticism. Yet, the common man was hooked on to the theory. The Church reacted and stood against him;To his consternation,chief among those,who anti this theory,were his old teachers Henslow and Sedgwick. 


However, Darwin was too ill to take part in these debates and was defended by his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker. He also wrote to several people and garnered a lot of support for his work. 

Before Anne's death,When she fell ill and he accompanied her to a seaside resort. There he developed an interest in orchids and the process of pollination and cross fertilization.  


Besides all these,Charles was quite an attentive and devoted father.Since Emma was his close cousin,almost 
all his children were quite deficient when it comes to immunity and they were prone to illness.
                      

                                        
So,in 1871, he published ‘The Descent of Man, and The Selection in Relation to Sex’,which illustrates the severe medical problems faced by the children,when parents are closely related,out of which a new branch of science called Genetics emerged.




Folks look around you..Remember a simple idea can bring great changes to your life..


Randal Keynes??


Annie's box – actually her writing case – passed to Randal Keynes’ father, who was Charles Darwin’s great-grandson. The box contained mementoes and some notes by Darwin recording the fluctuating state of Annie’s health in the months before her death. Investigation of the box and its contents led Keynes(great-great-grandson) to explore the lives of Annie and of the Darwin family in general. His book is, in effect, a joint biography of Annie and her father which seeks to uncover the joys and the heartaches of Victorian family life and to throw light on Darwin’s increasingly pessimistic image of nature and human origins.