Thursday, July 17, 2014

Woman, oh woman...

A small furore... an old, very old reason. Both the Bible and Quran are consistent in this issue too, that one must stay away from a menstruating woman. Words and phrases like unclean, impure, stay away and kept away are used. Menstruation is considered an illness. Makes one wonders why a woman has to bear with all this and still get more crap at the end of the day.

What the UMNO lawyer said was hillarious. And many people gave him many thumbs down for his gender biased comment. Yet, many are aware that the words he said are sanctioned by the holy texts too. Many spoke out against him. But the scriptures remain in that position.

Relevance... I taught my students that in order for the Constitution to remain relevant, changes are allowed, though it has to go through all the debates and motions in the respective houses in the parliament. Will ijtihad be allowed? The Christians are taught that the curtain in the old temple has been torn down... That which God has created is good. Yet, even as I was growing up, girls were only allowed to lead when they was no choice. Second best... That's how girls were brought up to feel and think. It still is like that somewhat, I guess.

We are embedded into a social structure. And this incident has woefully reminded me that within this social structure, with all the goodness, justice... all things supposedly good... there exists still, this hierarchy.

Women still earn less. Women do more if not most of the housework. Much of childcare, direct involvement in child raising, running of the household and the chores are carried out by women. And many of these super women have a 'real' jobs too. They juggle the 'real' and unpaid jobs, and still get the lesser deal. They still get reminded that they are not suitable to be heads.
A biological glitch or a mistake by the Creator?

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