Gender issue

Photo: Dr noazish ahmed

I believe Mr. Quasem is actually clinging to his beliefs that women really can't play the same roles as men because of some physical constraints, and has hidden these views in the guise of an article purportedly demonstrating a new enlightenment on his part.

Mr. Quasem's retreat into Biblical territory and the concept of Original Sin to define the character of women is almost laughable. He considers women as "THE source of pleasure for man". He wants to thank women for their role in society because without them no sons would be born. THIS is an enlightened attitude about women?

In suggesting a prescription for the future in this country he wants the Bangladesh government "to take severe actions to change the mindset" of the people. How does a government do this? Appoint Mind Police?

"The idea of gender equality is not a novelty" is how Mr. Quasem began his write-up titled "Women in a man's world" in the March 8 edition of this paper. Alas! If only that were so. The truth is, for a large number of people (including, I'm afraid, Mr. Quasem) it IS a novelty. Catch phrases like "gender equality" and "women's empowerment" are political-action buttons they wear on their lapels announcing their ideological affiliations and their heightened state of awareness.

Any day when a self-professed, but now reformed, sexist writes an article championing causes for women in Bangladesh is a day for celebration. And, there is indeed something here for us to celebrate- Mr. Quasem's newfound enlightenment. Life in the US has been an eye-opening experience for him, and for that I am glad. He has discovered that prejudice is universal. Even in a supposedly progressive country such as the United States and one that gave rise to the Women's Liberation movement, women are abused regularly. He has come to believe that this is not right, that women should not be kept in chains, that they too have value. This is indeed a happy moment.

So, why am I not happy?

Maybe, it's because I fear that Mr. Quasem, as so many other passionate and well-meaning men (and women), has transformed himself into another ineffectual advocate for women's rights. He sees the terrible injustice that is being perpetrated on women everywhere around the world, and is flabbergasted. He joins a group to fight violence against women (an admirable cause), but he still believes that women are the "weaker sex." (Never mind for the moment that in popular western culture that term is generally reserved for men.) He points to a woman's menstrual cycle as evidence for this. "There is no valid reason," as he puts it, "to why women fall sick once a month." No valid reason, of course, than an underlying and pervasive weakness in the other sex. And here is his take on the Original Sin, and what it reveals about the female character: "It is due to Eve's greed, Adam was brainwashed to eat the apple. It is not a surprise that women tend to be more materialistic than men."

Gee, it's no wonder that women all over the world get slapped around. Indeed, all of this makes Mr. Quasem's coruscating gallantry seem all the more dazzling.

Who cares that women are deceitful and weak and prone to squandering our hard-earned dough. Who cares that so many thousands of years ago, the matriarch of all women (and, incidentally, men too, but let's ignore that messy little detail for now) really stuck it to Adam. We are men in God's image. So, we'll forgive these weak and generally pathetic creatures. We'll take the high road and become their self-appointed guardians- their knights in shining armour. We'll charge bravely into the windmills of sexism all over the globe and vanquish them. But, let no one be fooled. It's not simply because we're benevolent and high-minded that we'll fight for women around the globe, but because we understand their collective value to society. And what are these values? According to the write-up, women are "The source of pleasure for man", they bear him "sons", and they represent a large (indeed, majority, though that is not contended in the write-up) portion of the world's work force. How charming!

I want to encourage Mr. Quasem on his quest for enlightenment and justice. I am heartened by his desire to stop violence against women. I only hope that along the way, he'll discover that terms like "gender equality" and "women's rights" are not political slogans, or well-planned NGO programmes, or a fashion statement. But a particular state of mind, I hope he'll recognise that the enemy he seeks to vanquish is the one lurking within his own soul.

On a smaller note, when quoting statistics let's all try to be as accurate as we can be. In this information age, with the Internet at our fingertips, it is embarrassingly easy. A quick Google search in preparation for this article yielded the following information: According to the US Department of Justice, in 2004, the last year for which complete statistics are available, there were 209,880 victims (men and women, but mostly women) of rape, attempted rape or sexual assaults in the United States. Of those, about 65,510 were victims of completed rape- a rate of roughly 8 per hour, not minute, as Mr. Qasem suggested. If we consider all sexual assaults, roughly 0.08% of Americans are sexually assaulted every year. According to a 2001 study by ICDDR,B, 37% of women in Dhaka were sexually assaulted by their husbands alone.

My intent here is not to give a favourable comparison for the United States- even one rape is one too many- but to suggest that we have a long way to go.

Jonathan Munshi, On e-mail