From The Venus

As a young boy I saw my sisters and questioned myself, if boys are biologically stronger than girls? In freezing winters of Delhi, while I had an option to wear a track pant beneath my school trousers, my sisters had no such alternatives for their skirts. I would wonder who designed trousers for boys and skirts for girls, when it should have been vice verse. Obviously when boys are, by nature, stronger between the two then why not boys made to expose their legs to the cold?

Fortunately I was grown up in a family where the siblings were not differentiated on the basis of their genders. The basic rules set for we three kids (my two elder sisters and me) were the same. But I saw my other friends, the female ones, who often suffered discrimination and injustices in their family. While their brothers, younger or elder, were allowed to make mid night entries at home, curfew was imposed for them after 7 in the evening. Whenever I discussed my feelings with my mum, she would always point the finger towards our society. She would often tell me, “A family’s respect is in the hands of the ‘female’ members of the family”. As I grew up reading books, I came across a beautiful novel-The Thousand Splendid Suns. A novel about two ill fated women in Afghanistan who from childhood days had to pay the price of being a women-first to their fathers, then to their husbands and later to the society(which in this case is a fundamentalist group in Afghanistan that misinterpreted Quran). That novel shook me from my roots.

Only recently, the government of Pakistan has signed a deal with Taliban in the Swat region of Pakistan, agreeing to the introduction of Sharia Law. In the name of implementing Sharia Law, the draconian practices will be legitimized and women will be the worst sufferers. Taliban has already blown up the girl’s school and colleges in the region. Girls are punished or even killed for having careers or desiring to go to school. While scholars of Islam says neither the Quran nor the Hadith(Traditions of Prophet Mohammad) allows men to subjugate women. Nowhere it is said that women be barred from seeking ilm (education). I quote

They (women) have rights similar to those against them. - The Quran (2:28)

The implemented Sharia Law is skewed against women. The punishment for adultery is sangsar or death by stoning. Also four male witnesses are required to testify rape of a woman. I repeat FOUR MALE WITNESSES are required TO TESTIFY RAPE of a woman. And why go to other’s land, when in our own country, on the land of ‘Bharatmata’ daughters are often burned alive because they are considered a calamity. Men are free to do what they want but woman, whether in cities or villages, can’t do that. Any little self-assertion can invite physical aggression.

This brings me to another two questions that I keep asking my mum from past two decades of my existence. Why does she keep a fast on Karva-Chauth while papa has a normal 5 course meal? And why does she address papa’s parents as mummyji and papaji, while papa addresses her parents as uncle and aunty?


There is a need to celebrate the female spirit. If a mother can have the courage to kill a daughter-born or unborn- just to save her from the fate that has befallen her, the women needs to be shown that there is a choice. That her daughter can have a better life.