Who is she?
The one who always carries a question mark with her. The one who is always deeply pained by the society and never being appreciated enough. The one who gives birth to the successful men, the proud gentlemen. Those men who lose their pride without the name of a ”Mother”.
She is tiny, fragile, sensitive but strong enough to build a life. Who is that tiny, sensitive person? The one who is supporting her man with her strength and is being always humiliated by him (?) She is mother, lady, daughter, wife, widow, girlfriend … She is a woman.
When she suffers from the physical pain in the recovery room to deliver her baby she is a mother. When she is waiting behind the door for her husband late at night and never being answered by him, she is a wife. When she is in love she is a sensitive girl. When she is being ignored by her beloved one she is fragile but still a woman.
When she loses her son in a war she is a broken-hearted lady. Even when she is not faithful to her life she is a woman. When she is selling her body for money she is still a woman.
In the 21st century where women like Sonia Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto are competing to gain power, in small villages still women are being beaten up by their husbands. Still in patriarchal societies, girls are not able to express their feeling frankly.
According to the Indian National Record Bureau, there were 9,518 cases of rape in India in 1990 which rose to 15,468 in 1999. Thousands and thousands of articles have been written about women’s rights but the sad situation continues. Nobody’s responsible for the gender discrimination. (Sometimes, women, too, are responsible for the discrimination). More than two-third of jobs in the world are being done by women but they don’t even receive half the amount of respect. The women’s fame is often known when they are supported by men.
Women by their nature are strong, both emotionally and physically. They are strong enough to stay unmarried or as widows for years. They are able to bear the pain of child-birth but if men were in their shoes, if they were created in another nature, they wouldn’t be able to bear such a physical pain.
On the whole, this article is not intended to defend women nor castigate men. It is just few lines I penned about our mothers, sisters, and, perhaps, ourselves.
*Bahar
