by Durdana Bhat
Some feelings, since very long, are stirring up a storm in me. I am the part of society where woman seems to have a squeezed space. And reasons for this, I believe, are plenty. As a college student, I can see: how male egos readily put curbs on women.
Curbs to guard morality, let me clarify, are welcome. But let’s us weed out certain curbs on irrationality.
Though I am not writing this to malign my society, but yes, let me admit, mine is the society where being woman doesn’t always feel a proud thing.
Yes, you heard it right. And, this isn’t even a tongue-in-cheek comment!
So, here is the something I truly sense: Our society is yet to give girls a place they deserve. No, I am not speaking a clichéd crap. I starkly observe how girls often face retort, if at all, they tow a different line.
And the admonishment sounds like this: “Hey, stop it! You aren’t supposed to do that. You are a girl, not a boy!”
“Not a boy?” You kid me, right?
And the worst part, I believe, is that girls often become a victim of parental expectations: “Beta, you have to do this, for our sake.”
Parents do have their rights, but not at the cost of their children’s dreams and aspirations. Though, not every parent is like that, but unfortunately plenty are.
So, then, let’s talk about marriage. What? Are we going to talk about something, which has become a default material dealing? Fine, let me cut the crap.
The point is: Kashmir today has become a miserable home for over-age unmarried girls. Why? Because they were born in humble families!
And that’s, precisely, their crime! The marketing of marriage has only escalated their woes. We, as a society, have greatly distressed such daughters. And, yes, we have failed them. Just reckon this: We are the masters of our own miserable mess!
If that isn’t enough, then there are, shall I say, innumerable restrictions put on girls. I mean, ours isn’t a society of crooks or criminals, then why these self-styled ‘gags’ on girls?
Are we such an imbecile as a society not to realise this: Such curbs only hamper the overall personality and growth of girls. But then, some continue to clip wings of fairer sex!
Okay, I am not finished, yet.
It leaves me with heart burns to see ill-treatments toward girls in public transport. It forces me to wage a war against those who direct girls: “Okay, you have study enough. Just wind up. And take care of home!”
It instils a seething sense in me when I notice how some continue to murder girls in wombs itself.
And it creates a stormy rage in me when I watch how girls are still treated as moral and material burden of our society.
Maybe, someday, I will wake up with no such feelings, anymore. I wish!
