Women Day for World

On Feminism and the world outside

To start with, in today’s world, feminism is fraught with contempt and hatred! It has become sp common that young women are in fact afraid of associating oneself with the concept. Well, before we dive deep, a brief history about women’s day:
International Women’s Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, is celebrated on March 8 every year.[2] In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women for their economic, political and social achievements
March 8, 1917 in the capital of Russia, Petrograd, began a demonstration of women textile workers, covering the whole city. This was the beginning of the Russian Revolution.[3] Declared a national holiday in the Soviet Russia in 1917, it was predominantly celebrated in socialist and communist countries until it was adopted in 1977 by the United Nations.
Now that the history part is clear, I just wanted to add a couple of my own thoughts pertaining to this movement. Every day, International women’s day is directly associated with the concepts of feminism, equal rights and women dominance over the masculine society, a total misinterpretation.
International women’s day has everything to do with empowerment and empowerment is not feminism. Empowerment is the basic rights a woman should have in terms of rights to vote, drive a vehicle, read, walk and talk.
Women empowerment is not new to the Indian civilization. In Indian religious school of thought, women was the mother Goddess, the rivers, and the nature and as Shakti, the kinetic energy to Shiva’s potential energy. The mythical River Saraswathi, the celestial Menaka and Rati, the consort of Kamadeva, Sati, Sita , Durga and Kali, Kannagi and Madhavi, Kunthavai and Nandhini have all lived in my country. The concept of women empowerment is not new to us in India. In fact, we should be proud and boastful of our country where women have always been thought of being far superior to the men in our motherland.
Well then how does International women’s day have relevance to us here today? Today, the situation has changed all over the world, thanks to the global exposure and the availability of data at fingertips. Acid attacks and kidnapping has become common. Women objectification has become the order of the day. People are becoming far more conscious on aspects related to physical looks making anorexia and bulimia household terms.
To put things in the right context, feminism is being used as an excuse, as an escapism where the women try using it to their advantage. Feminism is for people who have no advantage, who are not even being treated as human beings, who are being downtrodden that even their every day existence becomes a challenge.
As I pen this down, I remember these words from Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers. This is the address that the headmistress gives to every batch of students in her school and it goes as follows, ‘One day you will leave school and go out into the world as young women. You should take with you eager minds, kind hearts, and a will to help. You should take with you a good understanding of many things, and a willingness to accept responsibility and show yourselves as women to be loved and trusted. All these things you will be able to learn at Malory Towers—if you will. I do not count as our successes those who have won scholarships and passed exams, though these are good things to do. I count as our successes those who learn to be good-hearted and kind, sensible and trustable, good, sound women the world can lean on. Our failures are those who do not learn these things in the years they are here.’
Like she said, the world needs more good- hearted and kind souls who are sensible enough to lend a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on, when needed. After all, isn’t that what our mythological heroines like Menaka and Rati, Durga and Kali, Kannagi and Madhavi taught us, a civilization that dates back to the stone age itself.
Happy women’s day folks!