The 21st century marked its arrival in a heroic manner. The advancements in technology, our reach to Mars are just a nail size of our accomplishments. But isn’t it astounding that this era has failed to eliminate the orthodox mentality of this patriarchal society? We may sound modernised but ironically we are progressing backwards as the male counterpart is failing to find a safe corner in this star-studded world. Initially, Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old education activist from Pakistan, was shot in the head by a member of the Taliban for espousing her belief in a girl’s right to run tongue on the books. Immediately one week after the attack on Yousafzai, the merciless and brutal killing of a teenage girl in western Afghanistan advertised a recent spate of attacks against Afghan women.
Suzanna Walters, a professor of sociology at Northeastern University and the director of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, shed light on why violence against women and gender inequality won’t soon be a problem of the history. She advocated that substantive change can never be simply imposed from the outside, even from well intentioned feminists from abroad. She quoted,”The bottom line is that deep equality for women—and the feminist project more generally—is never a safe endeavor: Male power, both here and abroad, Muslim or Christian or Jewish, will never give ground voluntarily”.
This current situation definitely is not a dream world all of us are anticipating. World organisations are toiling hard to lift up our substandard behaviour but these efforts would turn futile without the assistance of general public.
Harminder Singh