HEAD SCARFS AND ENVIRONMENT

With scarf covered heads and nothing but eyes visible, this culture has become a wild infection.

In the past few years or rather 2 years I have seen a lot of women and not just the Burkha clad women cover their entire face except their eyes.

I know it is compulsory to the Muslim women and I respect it but girls and women form other cultures seem to love this trend or rather they are forced into it.

Talk about hiding everything including your nose and mouth and increasing the amount of suffocation!

Who is to blame for all this?

I am myself one of those few who happens to cover her head but nose and mouth is not my forte. It is suffocating and irritating.

So coming back to the question of why more and more women are turning to this sense of fashion? The answer is pretty simple. With the amount of increase in frequency of cars, busses, bikes and other vehicles on road, the amount and frequency of hair fall, scalp and skin problems, respiratory problems and other issues has raised and reached a level so high that it seems strange if women don’t actually wear them.

Recently a friend of mine visited me in Hyderabad and it was interesting to note what he thought about the current scenario and also more on climate change.

He completed his graduation in Vellore and the temperatures there are pretty severe if not anything else. According to him girls in Vellore are often seen either in shades or they use umbrellas. The interesting part is that if boys use either of this they end up being called stupid or a few more weird names.

What I fail to understand is why should anyone stereotype anyone else just because they are carrying something as a fashion accessory, a protection against sun or to simply beat the heat? So much harassment just to stay your way?

Look at the now lost forever cover of the trees. If Hyderabad at any pint boasted about its tree cover then I think she should work at getting it back. With so many buildings coming up it is not only difficult but impossible to find a tree and stop under its shade.

How are the actresses going to dance around the trees anymore now? Well, that’s just a thought!

More so, everyone now wants to own a car or a vehicle as such and there is not much space on the roads. Just imagine what would be the condition of the roads, vehicles, people and of course the stores around when the metros will come up. They are soon on their way by the way!

Let’s start with the blame game again. These days everyone wants to work which includes people of ages like 20 onwards or sometimes even lesser. Due to this public transport has to be increased and therefore roads have to widen. For this trees have to be cut and there by this adds to more pollution.

The simple equation hence comes to:

Increase in population=directly proportional to=increase in want of employment= directly proportional to =increase in public transport= directly proportional to=cutting down of tress= directly proportional to=increase in pollution= directly proportional to=increase in the number of head scarfs.

Isn’t that simple? Well it might be but what isn’t simple is the sympathetic situation of the area and the Mother Earth on the whole.

As I said all things are directly proportional so changing one will change everything. However the million dollar question is what to begin with?

Concentration on inflation (forcing every member of the family to run outside to earn), increasing the tree cover (which means reduction of vehicles on road) or increasing the public transport (which means increase in tree cutting)?

I hope someone comes up with a solution which beats mine and can make more sense and brings little or no altercations along with it.

Until then, ladies continue the head scarfs!

Patriarchy. Is it what it seems?

The Indian system of things since times immemorial has been to give the utmost respect to women but to provide the maximum and immense power to men. The power seems genuine too. After all, when humans were hunter-gatherers, the men were in charge of food and security while the women choose to look after the kids. This was also due to a fact that men are biologically stronger than women.

At a time when man and woman had to make their own huts and make homes out of caves, this was more than justified- the male domination.

Eventually over a period of time, this became a rule. Even though the society evolved, human beings evolved physically but not mentally. They remained stuck to the idea of male domination. And this continues to this day.

Patriarchy, in all forms of the word clearly defines male domination. It is a pity to see the conditions and the situations of women due to the monotonous cry of men which only screams but fails to hear.

The entire idea of parity is not only lost but it is also given up. And given up for good! At least that is the major assumption. This being said, it is interesting to note that women, at least in certain cultures and sections of society, have assumed and believed that the man is the know-all and do-all. Where some cultures and societies continue to struggle against it, the others use an “I am used to this” approach.

Ultimately, with more and more women giving up before men rises, the struggle by a few who wish to bring parity in the society fall face first and fail miserably. This not only lowers self-esteem, it also includes the destruction of an enormous effort to keep things in balance.

Today, many women strive to achieve an equality status in the society. This is due to several reasons. Patriarchy in its full and complete form means the domination or the upper hand of the father and his family in the society. As this happens to be only in a legal term, women in any family or society have the right to make decisions and not just suggest them.

In many situations women don’t even get to suggest or advice when it comes to making and taking family decisions. This is not just injustice or down right disrespect of women, it also sends out a message that women are not important.

Further still many women inculcate this in their kids that the male is more important and should be looked after well.

It is for this reason that women eat in the end, after every member of the house has had their food and this is prevalent in many Indian customs and cultures. This not only forces them to eat whatever is left over, it also keeps them low on nutrition value.

In many societies women go long ways to fetch water. This search for water could be miles away sometimes with women carrying babies or being at any stage of pregnancy. It is true that exercise is good for health but walking for such long distances, putting in so much energy and time and eating absolutely low nutrition food, takes a toll on them and their babies, born or unborn.

If patriarchy is the rule of the day why can’t men go out to fetch water and women take care of kids and food?

Unfortunately, if a man is moving out of his home and seeking a job in another location away from home, then the responsibility of kids, food, animals, water and farming, all these come on the women.

So much for patriarchy!

If men are made to protect and women are supposed to take care then where is the line to be drawn?

Due to the patriarchy system and the false belief that men can rule, the current condition in terms of violation of women is a bitter story to tell and has immense chapters to it.

I am not going to take any real time examples as I see no point in stating them and discussing them all over again.

Women are ill treated at home by their husbands, fathers, sons and sometimes even their brothers. Not all ill treatments mean that they are harassed in any way, be it sexually, verbally or physically. But it definitely means that there is a violation of human rights done whether it is in disturbing the mental peace or causing physical stress.

The roads are never safe for women. Stats say that Delhi is the most unsafe city in the world. The maximum crimes occur there but this is just due to the area of Delhi. As it happens to be a small city, the area is smaller and hence the crime per area increases. This is why it happens to be the most unsafe city in the world.

But ignoring the area factor, any city in the world todays is not safe for women. It is not like con-women or women criminals do not exist, the fact remains the ratio between the female criminals to the male criminals, sees a huge diversion and difference between it.

The news or rape cases of men is rare but when it comes to women either being sexually assaulted or raped, the stats top the chart!

All these and many more evils like female infanticide, female feticide, assaulting cousin sisters, rape of daughters by fathers, rape of boy and girl child, are but common events. So common that now if anything worse to worse happens, it flashes in the news for a while and then loses both its voice and vigour to move people.

People are used to seeing, hearing and talking about such events. Every time there is an unlawful activity against a woman news channels portray it as breaking news, get a few women empowerment members and a few ministers and have panel discussions where everyone is screaming at everyone else. At the end of it the channel gets its ratings, viewers find out a few more facts and stats and a few families vow to keep their females safe. Chapter closed, throw the book into the water.

That’s how the society has gotten used to to all the unlawful activities around it!

All these assumptions, habits and affairs stem out from the roots of patriarchy. Patriarchy isn’t bad, but when used in its right sense. Until then it shall continue to create a false consciousness around itself which would command people to make men powerful and respect women only on paper not in person!