WOMEN ISSUES

by SAUGAT BHATTARAI

FROM ISSUE # 147 (March 2008) | IN THIS ISSUE
	REFER TO FRIEND		PRINT THIS ARTICLE

ANUP PRAKASH

All too often, the issue of discrimination seems to hug the backdrop because of the prevalence of petty worries in Nepal. Yet, is it still rife in the modern Nepali family, and does it still plague our advancing society? Let's hear from these students of United Academy to find out:

Participants:
Naresh Shahi: Class 12 Commerce (1)
Pradipti Bhatta: Class 11 Humanities (2)
Amit Chettri: Class 12 Science (3)
Pratistha Lama: Class 12 Management (4)
Richa Subbha: Class 12 Commerce (5)
Aradhan Chand: Class 11 Commerce (6)
Raunak Koirala: Class 11 Commerce (7)
Tripti Gurung: Class 11 Humanities (8)
Anudeep Dewan: Class 11 Commerce (9)
Neha Ghimire: Class 11 Commerce (10)
Aradhan Chand: Class 11 Commerce
Sharmila Gurung: Class 12 Commerce
Sujata Singh: Class 12 Humanities
Jyoti Singh: Class 12 Humanities

(To the girls) Do you personally have to face any sort of discrimination?
Jyoti: Yes. When I come home late, my parents get angry. Yet, my brothers can come home late and there is no objection.
Sujata: We get questioned frequently about lots of things like where we are going. If someone calls, our parents ask us who it is with suspicion.
Pratistha: People tend to be quick to assume how a girl is supposed to behave. For instance, when our room is messy, we get scolded because people tend to believe that a girl's room is supposed to be tidy all the time, whilst a boy can get away with the same situation.

Do you think society is to blame for discrimination?
Naresh: Personally, I feel that we unjustly put all of the blame on society when women themselves also have to take some responsibility for discrimination. When girls are told not to go to 'shady' places, places where boys are likely to tease them, girls themselves don't show the strength in going there.
Neha: Yes, but the point is that a girl gets teased and a boy doesn't. If a boy stops teasing then a girl will stop feeling insecure about being more outgoing.
Amit: I feel eve-teasing has to do with women's clothing as well. If women are ready to go out wearing suggestive clothing, then boys are bound to tease girls. It is like the saying, if a book is open, I will read it.
Sharmila: That's true, but I do not understand why a man has to tease a woman in the first place. After all, teasing is also a form of discrimination.
Jyoti: Society's perception of women is that of responsible human beings, whilst boys and men do not have such a term attached to them.

Have you heard people wishing for a son?
Sharmila: In my family there are only women but I feel don't feel the absence of boys. All my sisters are also independent; I admire my parents for not saying that they want a son.  
Pratistha: I feel society expects one son in a family here.
Tripti: Not only society, but I think religion has also enforced people into wanting a son. Hindu religion discriminates against women's periods. When a woman has her period, she isn't allowed anywhere. Although it might have been done for a woman's benefit, so that she can rest, now it is taken to such extremes that we aren't even allowed to go into our brother's room.
Raunak: Our country still has cases of 'witch hunting'. It shows how discriminated in society women are.

Do parents ever stop you from going out on the grounds that society wouldn't allow it?
Richa: The only reason we aren't allowed is because of how boys behave. It is biologically proven that we tend to be physically weaker.

Is there pressure with regard to the career choices you make?
Amit: I feel that depends on the family. I have sisters too, and in my family my sisters do not get pressured that way.
Jyoti: I want to study law, but because studying law takes seven years, my family feels that it will be too late to get married and they worry that my future will not be too secure.
Sujata: Even today there is pressure to get married from very early on. Even while studying in a 10 +2 level, I have heard of marriage proposals for girls.
Pradipti: When a girl wants to go abroad, every factor like age is
carefully considered. There is no such process with boys.

Do you think girls get special preferences, or have it easy sometimes?
Raunak: I don't think women have it easy.
Naresh: I don't think they should want any preference.
Amit: Yes, and I think that giving special preferences to women worsens the discrimination because it makes women appear weaker.
Anudeep:  But things like our 33% quota in the parliament are a very important first step towards abolishing discrimination. Without the quota, we wouldn't have more seats, we would have less.
Aradhan: Girls also get special seats on microbuses. I think this is also just because of how crowded the buses can get sometimes.
Jyoti: If there was perfect equality, I don't think there should be a
special seat in the microbus reserved for us women. These rules make the problems worse and not better.

What should be done to help abolish discrimination from society?
Amit: We should support women. Keep in mind that the future is uncertain, who knows, maybe a day will come when men will need a 33% quota in parliament?
Naresh: Girls are not weak. We should let them do the difficult physical work usually associated with men.
Raunak: We should educate Nepali people and not just talk about the problem.

What would you personally do to quell the problem?
Jyoti: I want to pursue my goal of studying law and prove to my parents and society that I can be successful.
Pradipti: I play the drums, which is still considered a boyish thing in society. I will still pursue this and also let my children be more outgoing regardless of their sex.
Anudeep: I would trust my daughters and let them talk with boys with no suspicion of my own.
Aradhana: I would like to influence other girls into believing in themselves as well.
Richa: I wasn't too well informed about these problems before because they never directly affected me. But now that I do I will try to change the way I live in the future so that people of the next generation will not have to suffer these problems.