The newspapers hailed it as a landmark verdict. Most of the
population on social media praised the progressive judgement given by the
Supreme Court but upon implementation, the lift of ban on women entering the
Sabarimala Temple faced major criticism in Kerala. Kerala has the highest
literacy rate among all the states in our country.
There were protest marches where thousands of women walked
in demonstration of their support of the ban on women entering the temple. They
were claiming themselves to be devotees of Lord Aiyappa. They were marching
because they believed that they were unworthy of entering his holy shrine.
This was happening right before Durga Puja when one of my
friends was telling me how she was not going to be able to take part in the
rituals of ‘anjali’ and ‘baron’ during Puja because she was going to get her
‘chums’. My friend is a post-graduate on Women’s Rights and Gender
Studies.
Irony died several slow deaths as I sat reading about the
Sabarimala verdict.
I read articles on how the issue was being politicized. I
read a gazillion tweets about a stupid comment by Smriti Irani. I even read
up all information available on the internet about the mythological references
of Aiyappa and Sabarimala legacy but nobody was talking about why and how was
all rationale failing when it came to blind faith.
There are three points to be noted here.
Highest literacy rate which means prevalence of education
could not save Kerala from understanding that the judgement passed by the apex
court was in line with the fundamental right given to all citizens of this
country - that nobody can be discriminated against, based on caste, creed,
religion, gender or identity of any sort. People failed to accept and understand
the necessity of a broader mind set which we take to be default result of
acquiring education.
Women, who have been oppressed for generations and have been
denied freedom and respect because they menstruate, a necessary natural
process, could not think of themselves beyond the social customs and beliefs
instilled in them. They failed to recognize themselves as human beings first and not sexual
objects inspite of facing the resultant disrespect throughout their lives in
some form or the other.
An educated, independent, young woman such as my friend
still believed that menstruation is ‘dirty’, ‘unholy ’ and 'impure'. She consciously
decided not to participate in Durga Puja because she had never been taught, as a
woman, to think of herself as a complete individual with a sense of self-respect
and ownership of her mind and body. Even her degree in Women’s Rights could not
make her stand up against such regressive customs; sadly could not even create
the consciousness in her.
As inexplicably bizarre as it may sound all the above points are the direct result of us believing women to be the lesser kind.
I love it how we keep talking about empowering women without
making them understand what empowerment actually means. We equate empowerment
with jobs, academic excellence, social status but never with self-respect; never
with women having full consciousness of their mind and their body.
Let’s please start at the basic now. Let us please teach our
daughters that they are not impure for having a natural physiological process
that involves blood coming out of their genitals. Let us please teach them that
it is not shameful to accidentally get a stain on their dresses; that they don’t
have to hide it from their brothers, fathers, male friends or colleagues when
they are getting period cramps. No amount of education or professional
achievement will have truly empowered women if we don’t stop all regressive
practices related to the woman’s body and not break the fake concept of purity
right at our homes. Let us please teach the coming generation of women to first
respect themselves because if we are raising our women to think of themselves
to be second class citizens then whatever we might do, we will not have
progressed as a nation.
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| Photo sourced from Google |
