Sometimes I feel like a fish trying to climb up the shore... with my powerful feeling of womanhood, strong views on freedom and deeply opinionated persona!
A woman rather be a femme-fatale, than an aficionado here. Her strength of thoughts, are vilified than respected. How many women do we actually know, to have made a mark in Nepal politics?? Is it my feeble memory or we actually have none!
We had Pasang Lamhu, who combated and conquerred the Everest. We had Parijit, who enriched our literature with her imagination. Of late, CNN heroes who shone brighter in international arena. Ladies like Bidhya Bhandari, to whom politics was gifted in lineage. I cant think of many.
A country with polemic and gibberish politicians, Nepal stands at crossroads today. It may either veer off a sharp cliff into despondency or rise like a phoenix, like South Korea, Japan and Singapore. Illuminated hopes come with this budget and other amendments. But with ropes of power scattered in many hands, so many mushrooming heads of prominence, its hard to fathom which way we progress.
And in this mix-bag of ethnic, dogmatic and ethical dichotomy, where exactly do women stand? In this league of patriarchial politics, legislation have been rectified. Property inheritence, citizenship claims to name a few. But will people embrace them without prejudice? Our social framework is structured in a way where women have a weaker hand. More so after marriage. She cannot pursue her goals and aspirations passionately, when she has to live in subordination.
Women from different ethnic and cultural backgounds are living in completely different era. Rural women still live in primitivity. Their dreams are thwarted, shelved, because of their male siblings, husbands and children.
And women like me, seemingly liberal and independent, we live in a mirage. We are customed to believe we are equals. We got similar education, similar job opportunities, even similar pay. But there are obligations that pulls us down. Little routines like cooking, bathing the children, making the shelves, closet, homeworks, linens, and cleaning consumes our leisure time. There is immense gratification in home-biding. But it overshadows our career and blurs our social stand in the long run.
This gap will probably end, only when gender based roles end, right from early childhood. A seismic shift cannot be anticipated!
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