Religious Fundamentalism, Women Fight Back

Nowadays TV is inundated with various debates on subjects ranging from social, political, sports, entertainment and of course trivial. It’s absolutely impossible to not get drawn into these debates unless you are strictly a soap opera fan and consider it as the start and end of the TV. For me soap operas are no less than self-inflicted torture and cruelty to oneself, but that’s my view and I would like to keep it that way. Now, we Indians do love debating, isn’t it? It’s in our DNA and we are ready to jump on to the debates on subjects which are far beyond our comprehension or not even remotely connected to our social standing. P L Deshpande or simply PU LA very wonderfully put it, a person working in the rodent killing department of municipality won’t shy away from discussing or debating the economy of USA. Jokes apart, the other day I was pulled into a TV debate, the subject was, should women and of certain age be allowed into the sanctum sanctorum of the religious edifices? So called protectors of religion (read agents) were debating fiercely on why women should not be allowed, they quoted religious scriptures in defending their stance and did not shy away from accusing the activists of meddling into religion and religious diktats. According to them rules in religion override the constitution, which gives every citizen the fundamental right to visit the place of worship they prefer.  I watched the program with disbelief, pity and shock. I was even embarrassed to watch this program where views expressed were regressive, obnoxious and draconian.

No Entry

What surprised me was, in this age of 21^st century we still have people who cling onto medieval mind sets and dictate terms which has no standing in today's civilized world; the views are simply untenable by all means. This is no less than religious fundamentalism and needs to be tackled with a firm resolve. Their brazen argument of women of certain age being impure was myopic and trash worthy. These fake guardians of religion needs to be reminded that these impure women were the ones who gave them birth and did everything to impart good life. They also need to be told authoritatively that their esoteric diktats of religion do not hold true in anyway and especially when compared with the constitutional rights of the citizens. Judiciary will bring down these fake agents of religion from their high pedestal, but we the citizens should show them their true value by not giving into their high handedness and fatwas. Instead of scare mongering, making sexist remarks and sticking onto their bigotry, these so called demi gods should spend some time in the kitchen helping the women folks and that would be a worthwhile endeavor.

Women Power

Women have achieved everything what men have, they have captured the Mount Everest, entered the space are heading big corporations and banks and are successful business women. We never know they might even step their foot on Mars, when they have achieved so much, and even grabbed positions in some of the pre-dominantly male bastions  like truck, rickshaw, bus drivers, to name a few, what on earth makes them inferior or incapable of entering the places of religion? I think the thought itself is ludicrous, primitive and absolutely barbaric. Also in today’s world where technology, science have progressed by leaps and bounds, it makes no sense to have such parochial thought process leave aside actions. India has enough important problems and worries to tackle than fight for the fundamental rights of its citizens and debate on how correct or wrong it is. I hope the guardians of Haji Ali, Shani Shingnapur, Sabarimala and other places of worship give up their medieval mind set and allow the fairer sex to execute their right of worshiping wherever they want. This will set a progressive and all-encompassing outlook which is the true representation of today’s world.