Wednesday, March 11, 2009

International Women's Day (meant to be posted Mar 8)

I’m sitting on my flight from Mumbai to Delhi and was just instructed to buckle my seatbelt. Soon after I was wished a Happy Woman’s day. March 8, known first and foremost as my mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mom), and secondly, as International Women’s Day, has become increasingly more urgent each year as my awareness of the plight of women all over the world grows. A couple years ago I had flown to NY to kick off my Art for Darfur fundraiser. I was speaking at a conference for young girls about the trials of the women of Darfur. After imparting on them the irreprehensible crimes against women who have been raped, murdered, and tortured in the genocide that still ravishes Southern Sudan, I conducted an art workshop with mainly underprivileged girls who expressed their impressions of the situation through painting. Their work was then shown at the main event and auctioned off as part of my fundraiser. Art for Darfur was the first time I had really reflected on what it means to be a woman in this world. Before leaving the US, I had very little understanding of the gender differences that exist. I was a tomboy growing up, playing football, collecting baseball cards, having only guy friends until 7th grade. Once I reached middle school, I finally managed to get girlfriends and in class, my gender never came up, always being afforded the same opportunities as my male classmates. Any sense of injustice was always connected to race, not gender, and even my doctoral research is linked more to race and ethnicity issues than to gender issues. My family might have something to do with my squewed view of the world. The family is probably as matriarchal as it gets. While Dad is much respected, Mom is in charge, which is I guess why having her birthday occur on Women’s Day is fitting. There were never any obstacles to what I could do as both my parents let me follow whatever whims or dreams I have.

Being in India for the past month has made me question what it means to be a woman. There are so many contradictions. While India has already had a female prime minister, women are sorely lacking in government and legislative bodies. While education to women is quite accessible, at least in the large cities, and the higher a woman’s degree, the more respected she is, once married and with a family, she is expected to be a wife and mother, first and foremost. Recent attacks on pub-going women in Mangalore remind us that women who don’t fit a certain mold are going to be ostracized and punished. While more women than men tend to be born in most of the world, in India, there are 93 female births per 100 male births. The business of finding out the sex of fetuses and aborting the females is a grave problem while female infanticide is even more problematic. While dowries have been outlawed, in many places especially in the countryside, women are costly because the families need to come up with a suitable dowry. In addition, since parents go to live with their sons, having only female children leave parents with a feeling of uncertainty in their old age. Many fear they will be discarded, forced into nursing homes, one of the biggest qualms that Indians have about Americans and their views on family.

It is in India that I first learned the word “eve-teasing”. It includes improper comments, touching, or other verbal/physical harassment by men. It is a punishable offense yet most women don’t know their rights or are too afraid to speak up. Marches all over India will take place on March 8. Some focusing on recent events like the Mangalore attacks, some calling attention to everyday occurrences like eves-teasing. Blank Noise, an organization in Bangalore, seeks to create an open dialogue today and everyday while SITA Sena in Mumbai, hoping to spark a trend, have armed women with whistles and instructed them to blow each time a man acts inappropriately to them. Women are not the only ones targeted in this campaign for empowerment. Men Against Violence and Abuse sensitizes men to women’s struggles. These are a few of the many demonstrations occurring today to remind India and the world that things have improved but we have a long way to go.

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