E's vs R's...!!

According to the Bible, Eve was created from the rib of Adam. Lord created woman as he thought man need a “helper corresponding to him”. The Bible describes the creation of Eve in these terms:
“The Lord God said: ‘It is not good that Man should be alone; I will make him a help meet’ the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and He took one of his ribs and made He a woman and brought her unto the man and Adam said, “She shall be called woman” (Genesis 2:18,21-3).

The creation of Hawwa  is not described in the Qur’an as in the case of Adam; though it is stated that a "mate" was created with Adam, from the same nature and soul. The Qur’an says what means:
‘It is He Who created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her in love.’ (Al-A`raf 7:189)

The two major religions (as in numbers) through their scripts say that woman was created from man. And these authorized teachings are said to be the first token to consider woman inferior to man. All religious scripts treat woman with utmost respect and honor. We all follow a discipline which elucidates on how to live a life (with an exception to atheists). We all are exposed to certain do’s n don’ts.  There will be certain aspects of these which we may not agree with it, still forced to follow. Anyhow when it comes to women, every religion says that she is special.

 Everything was neat and cool in the earlier stages. But as wheel of time started moving forward, things also changed. Status of woman started deteriorating. She was blamed for her husband’s death which gave birth

to Sati, she was asked to stay back home and was studded with the responsibility of taking care of her family, and in later stages, the only purpose a women was to perform those responsibilities and leading to child marriages, a widow was cursed and denied of remarriage, a woman was instructed to cover her entire body (purdah) and keep herself away from man, jauhar –the system where there was the voluntary immolation by wives and daughters of defeated warriors( in order to avoid capture and consequent molestation by the enemy ), the devadasis system which later lead to official prostitution and many more.

Still, there was women participation even in the earlier period (Razia Sultana, Jija Bhai etc), they belonged to the royal families of that time. Thanks to the so called social movements and the western invasion. It will not be fair if we neglect the contribution of British rule in banning few of the above social systems followed by Indians during that time. And later we saw the participation of women in various phases of life. She started contributing to literature, politics, arts and even in war. Women started participating in freedom struggle and actively involved in many socio- reform movements. From then we can say that woman held herself in the process of empowerment.

Since then we can say that women was seen in major social forums and made sure that she did everything with in her sphere using her maximum capabilities. She started engaging in economic activities especially manual works. I will say, it was then the real issue started. Man and woman doing same job, but were paid with different wages. And their claim was fair enough and they started fighting back. Initially if it was for wages which was genuine, later it grew to the demand of treating man and woman equal. And there came many women who started calling themselves as ‘feminist’ with the same old demand of  the two E’s – Equality and Empowerment. 

I don’t know why. I just don’t get these feminist notions. How can we consider man and women equal? When the nature itself has created them with certain biological differences, it is not even possible to say that man and woman are equal.  It is a fact that physically woman is not as strong as man. But mentally she is strong. God can’t be that biased.  Any how they have managed to empower women through education, employment and thereby improving standard of life.  And yea, tried to bring equality to an extent. At the end of the day, when it comes to vote, all these political parties had to make some legislation in favor of women. Thank god that in India, women have right to vote as men do.

The Indian government talks about making tourism one of its biggest money-spinners by 2020. But with rising instances of foreign tourists being robbed, molested, raped or murdered India is no longer considered a safe destination. Our country is no more a safe place for women. The extent of crimes against women in India attained global attention through the 23-year-old physiotherapist who was brutally raped in a moving bus by six males Dec 16. On one side, when people shout slogans for equality and empowerment, on other side women face enormous number of humiliations and brutal crimes against her.

What I am concerned all about is not the two E’s. It is all about the mindset. Every human should civilize

himself. Respect her for what she is. Express the love and care for her because she believes more in what she sees. If you have the respect for her in yourself, then you will consider her equal for no matter. You will empower her and encourage her for what she does. For her it is all that matters. For her it is all that love and respect which makes her happy. Insulting and humiliating women does not show your masculinity. You can win her only through love and respect and this is why, I give preference to two R’s – Respect and Reverence.