Are you a feminist or are you too scared to touch the subject?
The human specimen has always had the characteristics of ever-growing and ever-evolving nature. We’ve gone from stone houses to 163-floor apartments, like the Burj Khalifa, from traveling by horse to spacecraft, from natural-based healing, such as ayurveda and homeopathy, to laser treatment and the list could go on and on…
Nonetheless, whenever the word feminism is brought up, the first thing that comes to our brain is either women supremacy (which I promise you it’s NOT only that) or “we are touching a sensitive subject that most people don’t want to engage in or are not comfortable talking about”.
Well, let me tell you something, not only am I going to touch the subject but we are going to immerse ourselves in it, so buckle up and get ready for the ride.
Through centuries womankind has been looked down upon, assaulted, and insulted, well I don’t think you need me to explain it to you, because it has been talked about and debated so many times, that you must be fed up. I don’t blame you, we humans don’t like to relive and talk about the awful things that happen in our life and our world.
But here we are, standing in the same position as our ancestors. This is not to negate all the growth and recognition my-kind has received, but rather why my-kind is still stuck in this situation!
Before skipping and going to another article because you think “This is one of those articles, same sh** Let’s move on”, which quite honestly might even be, but this is the topic I chose to write about, so yeah, no other choice buddy.
Anyway, to make it a little more interesting let me tell you about a ritual that probably not many of you have heard of, I didn’t know up until four years ago, so I’m not judging.
Actually, I’m delighted that many of us do not know about it!
Have you heard of the Bollywood movie “Padmaavat” (if you haven’t go watch it, it’s a beautiful historical movie), anyways, it’s based on Rani (Queen) Padmavati and the practice of Sati and Jauhar. You must be thinking, what are these strange words?? Well, let’s discover it together…
When I watched the movie I was so stunned by the climax that I sat there for 5 minutes straight staring at the screen, and when my parents told me that the film was based on true events and practices that happened in previous centuries, in India, I was so speechless that I had to search and learn more about this awful ritual.
Through extensive research (umm…sure, if it makes me sound more interesting) I found:
- Sati is a historical Hindu practice in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband’s funeral pyre (a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution).
- The Jauhar was collective self-immolation by women to escape capture and forced into slavery by invaders, when defeat was imminent.
These “rituals” were so far rooted that the first sati appeared between 320 CE to 550 CE, during the rule of Gupta Empire (they are known for “developing” Hinduism through the different belief systems that citizens believed in). Sati was at its peak between the 15th and 18th centuries. During this period, as many as 1000 widows were burned alive every year, most commonly in Rajasthan (state of India) and Nepal. This is sooooo crazy and unsettling!
You might be wondering, Francesca, what does this have to do with feminism? Well, it’s very much connected, this practice was initially a voluntary act, as a sign of being a dutiful wife, so much so a woman followed her husband to the afterlife. It was, therefore, considered to be the greatest form of devotion of a wife towards her dead husband.
With time, it became a forced practice. Women who did not wish to die like this were forced nonetheless. Traditionally, a widow had no role to play in society and was considered a burden so she was pressured to accept sati.
And even though the ritual is not legal anymore (let’s thank the lords and heavens), the concept of looking down upon my spices hasn’t changed that much, and we are in the 21st century, might I remind you!
Women are still fighting, each and every day, to be treated equally, which is still too difficult to have!
Choosing to have a child or not is illegal in many states of America, “thanks” to Roe v Wade. The Act was overturned on the 22nd of June, of last year, 2022, and we all know the disaster that wrecked our world. We are close to passing the one-year mark, and still, we can’t do anything, just because 5 judges said so!
If that is not enough, in India it’s still illegal to know the gender of the baby! The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, often known as the Prohibition of Sex Selection Act, states that “it is forbidden to employ any method to determine a fetus’s gender after conception”. And you want to know why that is?
Apparently throughout decades, when an Indian family found that the 14 weeks old fetus was a girl, SHE was aborted, for the sole fact that she was a girl and she would be a burden for the family and the society!
Now you tell me what we are supposed to do. We can not be treated equally, can not choose what to do with our bodies, better yet, the government has to impose acts so that we have the chance to see the light of day!
This is all leaving out the day-to-day struggle that my-kind goes through! She can be insulted because she is too thin, but also because she is too fat, a mother that doesn’t work or a mother that does work, married, not married, cat called because she’s wearing too little and if she’s wearing too much she’s so conservative and no fun.
Judged when she gets a promotion, because of course “she f**** her way up”, and if she doesn’t get one it’s because she dared to deny an “opportunity”, she isn’t doing enough! Too strong and bold or too weak, too independent, not independent enough… We are just not enough, are we? And to say that this doesn’t even cover half of what womankind experiences in our society.
But still, we stand tall, head held high, strong, bold, beautiful than ever, with a smile on our faces and the weight of the world on our backs, so that we never give up on what is rightfully ours!
