“Women Empowerment” a term that has been used the most since the past 5 years and has only went on to gain more and more momentum. The term was coined and used to call out the patriarchal society that we live in which denies it’s women equal rights as compared to the men.
For the longest time women have been denied their basic rights and after years of living under the smothering patriarchy they decided to rise and fight for their own rights. Initially the moment was very passive in nature but slowly and gradually it took a roaring turn and went on to awaken the gloomy souls of all women as well as men across nations who were turning a blind eye towards this decade long issue.
Most of the countries today are slowly giving its women their well deserving equal rights and opportunities that had been compromised for the longest time. Women are also no longer tolerating inequality and injustice silently rather openly voicing their opinions and rightfully putting forward their demands.
From being denied the right to education to countless female infanticides it has been high time that women have to suffer to glorify and uplift the men of our society. After facing so many hurdles to being sheltered all their lives expected to do all the domestic chores finally women have come to their senses realising their true potential and self-worth. After years of being treated like dummies in the society whose ears turned deaf to the cries of women for equalisation, it is now that women all over are ready to step forward, take matters into their own hand and function their ability to make decisions for themselves and influence societal change for the best.
Women are now holding important political positions accelerating the improvement of women’s societal status. Moreover, it is also very essential and vital at a domestic level for women to be well educated and to be provided with equal opportunities as men because women go on to have their own families and we all know a mother is always the first teacher of her child. An educated, aspiring women will imbibe all the needed moral values in her children helping them to grow up and become sensible citizens.
There are still corners of the world where women are largely discriminated as compared to the men. They are not allowed to decide their future, voice their opinions. Women, largely are still denied the right to choose their own spouse which cannot stop me from mocking the prevailing patriarchy of our society that claims to be exercising women empowerment full-fledgedly.
Even after reports of heinous crimes such as rapes and third-degree assaults and molestations there are few political leaders holding important chairs in the Parliament who have the guts the go on and comment on women’s clothing citing them to be the “primary cause” for rape. We still live in a world that finds it easier to tame its women rather than raising our voice against the visible patriarchy being practised at a stretch.
Over the years there have been so many reports and surveys on domestic violence, keeping aside the fact that hundreds of cases are not even reported, instead of making the law and order strict for these cases the government as well as the society has gone on to normalise domestic violence.
Crime against women have been the most reported for the past decade. There are still a lot of cases that are neglected by the so called law and order protectors not the mention the ones that got away just because of the mere humiliation that the victims will be subjected to by our society. There a countless developed countries where “Marital Rape” is not even identified as a criminal offense which speaks volumes of the hypocritic world that we live in.
Due of lack of sex education and it also being considered as a taboo in our society makes it difficult for both men and women to know and acknowledge the right for consent. Being married to someone does not imply that we ought to lose our own identity and persona just so as to compliment your partner’s lifestyle. It is widely normalised for women to compromise after getting married and give up on their careers after having a child when it should the duty of both the parents to equally participate in a marriage as well as raising a child.
Moving on to problems faced by women that have went on to become global topics of discussion and have been making headlines. Recently we have come across the witness a surge of protests made by millions of agitated Iranian women over the death of a 22-year-old arrested on the grounds of “inappropriate attire”. There still many countries where women are barred from exercising their basic rights.
The most developed and talked about the USA also let us down by declaring abortion as illegal which sent shock waves across nations as now men have stooped as low as to control women’s body only to satisfy fragile ego and feed their want for authority. We have also countries where women are fighting for their Hijab Rights as well countries where women are protesting against wearing Hijab, to conclude it all comes down to one simple thing ; women fighting for their right to choose.
By: Akankshya Jena
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