Today is a big day.....for the Bengalis??
well that's surely a question...
ok lets be true to ourselves....today is indeed a big day for their Bengal.
Bangladesh votes today....n its a straight battle between two ladies.
so the two Bengali Tigress....Shiekh Hasina Wajed and Begum Khaleda Zia.
sure the Bengali Begums are fighting for their pie. Hasina, the eldest daughter of the Father of 'their' nation, n Zia the widow of once President.
we often look for symbol....we remain happy that we grant something symbolically to someone n that means a whole lot of things for them....not only the recipient, but the sect that he or she may represent.
that may be the case here also.The Begums are fighting....one will win....be the PM for next 5 years....they had been....but what about those unsung begums...lakhs n thousands of them? fighting their life out daily .....just for living?
Even in our Bengal, some obscure begum Firoza Bibi will take on the mighty administration early next year in Nandigram.....but will that grant her all that she wants?..or the sect she is representing.....rather aspire to represent all that they thrive for?
do they really thrive for anything?...atleast for themelves?
once i came across an article in a widely circulated magazine Desh that majority of our rural women thinks that their husbands enjoy the right to beat them as they earn the bread for the family.....they dont even realise only earning will never do alone unless they r cooked well n their lies her contribution too.
Moreover who has ever said she cannot be the bread earner?
Firoza bibi is a symbol...she the bereaved mother of a martyr.....mother of a son who laid her life in the fight for land.....she has been nominated just for that tag....n nobody has any problems admitting that. But what she is?
a mother who had spent endless nights giving her son a sound sleep...or atleast tried to do so?
a wife who silently followed the orders of the patriarch probably and became a mother?
now a mother who would reap gains for someone else...but why not for her?....why not for those endless number of women who never even think that they are individuals?...that they have a life that they have every right to live in their own way?...why not?
we talk so much....and we remain happy thinking that women r doing so well in every front...but does a Sobhaa De or an Arundhati Roy or for that matter a Medha Patekar or those hugely powerful Bengali Begums do anything for them?
will they ever make them realise what they have achieved, could have been achieved by those unsung heroines if they were provided the same opportunities?..will they ever take part in their daily battles against poverty? against those inhuman strictures thrust upon them by this phallo-centric society?
probably no....because they even relish the fact these women are downtrodden....n just because they are there they have something to do....something to project n reap their own gains.
That may sound harsh, but isnt that true?
Is feminism all about how comfortably a woman can wear a skimpy dress n walk down Garihat Road?...well nothing against a super short dress...but what would a Firoza Bibi know about a male gaze?
its a part of their life, and they unknowingly they know that it happens....why they know not...will these "powerful" women ever take the hardship to let her know that har body is hers only n not for male gaze?
I came across a friend whose family was against love marriage because "the girls who fall in love r voluptuous....good ones wait for arranged marriage".....laughing?
buts its true dear....eradicating this is an uphill task.....it is never sufficient to qiuz a made up beauty about man-woman relationship and male gaze and publish them in Page 1.
today the Bengali Begum will definitely get their due...one will win...another will not lose certainly....
But Begum Bangla probably will continue to fight....unless we the so called voice lenders of women empowerment realise that work lies in the field...and not in those AC rooms......
Firoza Bibis will continue to remain symbolic for someone else's power.....and we will be secured that we have mothers n sisters n wives to reap us our gains but never asking for a share in our glory.
sure the Bengali Begums are fighting for their pie. Hasina, the eldest daughter of the Father of 'their' nation, n Zia the widow of once President.
we often look for symbol....we remain happy that we grant something symbolically to someone n that means a whole lot of things for them....not only the recipient, but the sect that he or she may represent.
that may be the case here also.The Begums are fighting....one will win....be the PM for next 5 years....they had been....but what about those unsung begums...lakhs n thousands of them? fighting their life out daily .....just for living?
Even in our Bengal, some obscure begum Firoza Bibi will take on the mighty administration early next year in Nandigram.....but will that grant her all that she wants?..or the sect she is representing.....rather aspire to represent all that they thrive for?
do they really thrive for anything?...atleast for themelves?
once i came across an article in a widely circulated magazine Desh that majority of our rural women thinks that their husbands enjoy the right to beat them as they earn the bread for the family.....they dont even realise only earning will never do alone unless they r cooked well n their lies her contribution too.
Moreover who has ever said she cannot be the bread earner?
Firoza bibi is a symbol...she the bereaved mother of a martyr.....mother of a son who laid her life in the fight for land.....she has been nominated just for that tag....n nobody has any problems admitting that. But what she is?
a mother who had spent endless nights giving her son a sound sleep...or atleast tried to do so?
a wife who silently followed the orders of the patriarch probably and became a mother?
now a mother who would reap gains for someone else...but why not for her?....why not for those endless number of women who never even think that they are individuals?...that they have a life that they have every right to live in their own way?...why not?
we talk so much....and we remain happy thinking that women r doing so well in every front...but does a Sobhaa De or an Arundhati Roy or for that matter a Medha Patekar or those hugely powerful Bengali Begums do anything for them?
will they ever make them realise what they have achieved, could have been achieved by those unsung heroines if they were provided the same opportunities?..will they ever take part in their daily battles against poverty? against those inhuman strictures thrust upon them by this phallo-centric society?
probably no....because they even relish the fact these women are downtrodden....n just because they are there they have something to do....something to project n reap their own gains.
That may sound harsh, but isnt that true?
Is feminism all about how comfortably a woman can wear a skimpy dress n walk down Garihat Road?...well nothing against a super short dress...but what would a Firoza Bibi know about a male gaze?
its a part of their life, and they unknowingly they know that it happens....why they know not...will these "powerful" women ever take the hardship to let her know that har body is hers only n not for male gaze?
I came across a friend whose family was against love marriage because "the girls who fall in love r voluptuous....good ones wait for arranged marriage".....laughing?
buts its true dear....eradicating this is an uphill task.....it is never sufficient to qiuz a made up beauty about man-woman relationship and male gaze and publish them in Page 1.
today the Bengali Begum will definitely get their due...one will win...another will not lose certainly....
But Begum Bangla probably will continue to fight....unless we the so called voice lenders of women empowerment realise that work lies in the field...and not in those AC rooms......
Firoza Bibis will continue to remain symbolic for someone else's power.....and we will be secured that we have mothers n sisters n wives to reap us our gains but never asking for a share in our glory.
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