Gender in South Asia Essay

These cardinal contradictory comments are ab go forth women the first one is the rigid dictum which is subdued going on in our society and it had always been a consequence from the time of Mahabharat to the present day that women do not have the power to be an independent human being. And in the second comment a charwoman wants to lead her life to her own accord by refuting the patriarchal domination. She wants to caste a knotlion against the Patriarchal hegemony which creates a boundary over female freedom.It seems as if she wants to repudiate the above-mentioned patriarchal dictum. These are two themes which I want to focalization in my term paper which exists till now in our society of South-Asia in general and Bangladesh in particular. I want to show how South- Asian women brass patriarchal heaviness and how they have started to lead her life to their own accord. I want to establish these facts through Selina Hossains two short stories Motijans Daughters and The exist ence of Love and Labour.I pack Bangladesh among so many South- Asian countries because the stories from Bangladesh also contri entirelyed to our experience of re fractioning the scattered and disjointed body of Bengali womens writing, we are ashamed to acknowledge this but the fact remains that we had been largely ignorant of the extremely powerful body of womens writing from our neighboring country scorn our shared inheritance of quarrel and culture. The distinct features of the above-mentioned texts, both in terms of content and treatment, bring out the political, religious nd culture specifities that depose womens writing from Bangladesh.In these two stories the setting is rural and the women, who have the power to destabilize the status quo of the sexse, function within village community. The purpose coffin nail this rural setting, according to me, is lied in the fact that urbanization is a fairly recent phenomenon there. And the writers are possessing intimate links with t heir native villages. And I choose Selina Hossain because she is one of the most important women writers of Bangladesh.Her deep preceptions of nature and human psyche have made her writings unique and absorbing. She in her writings depict the character of a woman in the social and cultural movement of her country. She points to the challenges administrationd by women, to the decisions taken by women in social and political cries. Now I want to show how two above-mentioned themes function through Selina Hossains two stories. In Selina Hossains Motijans Daughters, the central character Motijan under goes a lugubrious marital life because of the malevolence and maltreatment of her mother-in-law Gulnur and husband Abul.She is physically and mentally tortured and she looses her identity both as a female and womanish. (1) She looses the very She in her. She is blamed as Sterile woman. All her zest of becoming mother is shattered by her husband Abul as he has an mislabeled relations hip with Rasui. So he does not care for Motijan. She is continually tortured by her mother-in-law as her dumbfound is un equal to pay the promised dowry. This dowry ashes is a poignant phenomenon in our society for which many women have to face tremendous torture before and after their marriage.Rabindranath Tagore has shown us how Nirupama, in his horizontal surface Dena Paona had to face a fatal death as her father was unable to give the promised dowry. solely here, Selina Hossain deviates from Tagore. Her character Motijan has transformed herself from a helpless creature unequal to(p) of even the slightest protest to a woman who can choose the man she desires and not simply put up with her husband who abuses and ignores her. She proves her fertility by devising an extra-marital relationship with Lokman and like an Angry young woman chooses her own life to her own accord.She wants to specialize what Benares in Vijay Tendulkars Silence The Court Is In Sessoon, cute to tell My life is my own I will do what I like or she wants to do what the duchess of Malfi had done in websters The Duchess of Malfi. Motijan has fulfilled her desire by crossing Strategic Essecentialism (2). Kunti in Mahabharat was not able to make public about her illicit relationship and about her son Karna but Motijan is able to do that. Motijan boldly makes public about her extramarital affair by taking two daughters in her hand.Accordingly to Lacan every(prenominal) desire is a misrecognition. In the case of Motijan, her desire is non feminine because she negates her feminine identity of wife or Sati to give way a mother. She chooses Lokman not because she loves her, she makes a relation with him only to come out from the blame of infertility given by her mother-in-law Gulnur. Thus, Motijans desire for Lokman is ultimately misrecognised. She takes her desire for Lokman as a weapon of rebellion by which she negates her feminine identity of wife and builds her female identity b y giving birth of two female children.Jahanara Imams The Weapon depicts not merely the trauma of a woman who is raped brutally but the specifies of her suffering acquire a natural political significance as chhabiran resists the violent take-over of the territory of her body and attain by Pakistani forces. As chhabiran uses her desire as a weapon like wise Motijan also takes her desire as a weapon to rebel against her mother-in-law. Another important theme in this story is the exploitation of women by women. Gulnur is like the traditional mother-in-law of our society who maintains her tradition by torturing her daughter-in-law.Inspite of being a women she continually maltreats Motijan. As the mother-in-laws are also tortured by their mother-in-laws, so they carry on this torture as if it is a legacy to them. But they in truth gain exploitation not any advantage. But when they use it, it becomes negative legacy. Gulnur is doing the same. Gulnur has not judged her self as a woman. Sh e has been influenced by the stuffy tradition of our society and has judged herself as a tool of oppression. Another important theme is about the birth of female child.In Aitereya Brahaman, 6/3/7/13 from Taslima Nasreens Selected Columns it is stated that the birth of a daughter was considered a curse. Therefore it is imperative that a pregnant woman should perform so that her child may be a male. This is the concept of Vedic age and it is still now very dominant and static code in our society. And in this story same thing happens with Motijan after giving birth of two female children. Gulnur, her mother-in-law wants to drive out her from the house by claiming that family caper will not be saved by female children.But Motijan, like a new woman retaliates over Gulnur by rearing the children with utmost care and dress. Her pride is equal to the heroine Hester Pryne in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter who feels proud of her daughter Pearl. And her anger is equal to Jimmy Po rter of Osbornes Look Back in Anger. In Brihadaranyak Upanishad from Taslima Nasrees Selected Coloumns it is declared that wife must walk behind her husband and The Satpath Brahamana directs women to follow the husband but Motijans husband Abul who is not becoming of a husband even not worthy of a human being, so there is no question to follow her.Besides, his torture and his smoking of bidi forbid Motijan in a Claustrophobic situation. Abul does not do the least duty of a husband. That is why she does not consider him even as a member against which she can set a rebellion. Besides, why always women should follow Men? This is totally a power play patriarchy. And according to me, every Motijan should disobey every Abul like husband as they are not worthy of being a husband. One of the synonyms of woman is bharjya one who is borne. These is a similarity in blood between the words bharjya bhirtya a wife and a servant.Motijan is treated like bhirtya slave in her family not as a true wife. The ending of the story is significant because although the story ends, the struggle of Motijan does not end. It is just the beginning of her struggle where she will have to face more complexity from Patriarchal society. She has brought two new Motijan whom she will have to make ready to struggle against later Abuls and Gulnurs. Through the ending of the story Selina Hossain wants to tell that the revolt which Motijan has started is not the revolt of Motijan only but the revolt of every women of our South- Asian society in general and Bangladesh in particular.It is the revolt of those women who are the victims of such Patriarchal and matriarchal oppressions. And the struggle which Motijan has started is unending, there is practically left to gain her proper right and freedom. Likewise, women of South-Asia will have to struggle more to acquire their right and true freedom. Selina Hossains another story The serviceman of Love and Labour shows that Amzad Mia, Fulbanus fat her wants to give marriage of Fulbanu to Kasem Khan who has already two wives, for the greed of land.In spite of being a father he considers her daughter as an element of exchangeable commodity. This is not the present concept of our society. In Mahabharat we see that Arjun told Kunti, after bringing Draupadi by marrying her that he has brought a thing which he wants to give her mother. So, since the days of Mahabharat women are treated as an object not as a human being. Taslima Nasreen in her Selected Columns writes Milk,curdles,eggs and coconuts rot, so does a woman. Thus, we see that society applies the term to a woman as if she is an object.Taslima Nasreen in her Selected Columns again shows that Samartha Sabdokosh which is a wonderful addition to the Bengali language and literature, uses synonyms for a Man Purushmanush , Manab, Manush etc while for women synonyms are Stri,Meye,Ramani etc. The numerous synonyms for woman however do not mention Manush which simply means Human. But Fulbanu stops her fathers Conspiracy in order to get wind him a lesson that she is also a human being and her desire should also be valued.She marries Kasem Khan secretly without giving any information to her father and her family so that her father cannot get the property offered by Kasem Khan. On the other hand she wants to teach a lesson to Kasem Khan also. Kasem is a representative of neo-colonialism. (3) In Neo-Colonialist concept one person thinks himself to be superior without thinking what others think about him as he marries many women only to fulfil his lust without caring any body. He gives wrong notion of his practicing Polygamy that as he has no children so to save the family line he wants to marry Fulbanu.We find that it is not a recent phenomenon. In Aitereya Brahmana from Taslima Nasreens Selected Columns it is stated that a woman cannot marry more than once. Even if a man has many wives, one husband is enough for a woman. actually there is a medical reaso n behind this polygamy and to prove this matter I want to refer Taslima Nasreens view, who in her Selected Columns tells that between the age of fifty and seventy many men suffer from an enlargement of Prostate Gland. This enlargement of the secretory organ leads to an increase in familiar desire, though the end is likely to be permanent impotence.These old men, because of an enlarged gland, are suddenly fired with excessive sexual urge and long to get them selves wives. Many try to saying these men need a companion in their old age. They prefer to marry teen girl rather than old woman. The case of Kasem Khan is also the same. Kasem Khan also reminds the example of Prophet Mohammed. But Fulbanu Shatters his dream of enjoying her and also proves that the two wives do not suffer from infertility. The true fact is that Kasem Khan Is impotent and for that he has no children.The Aitereya Brahmana gives from Taslima Nasreens Selected Columns unreserved praise to a woman who never Con tradicts their husband. The two wives before Fulbanu blindly accept this concept. They neither refutes Kasem Khan nor try to discover the actual truth behind their infertility. But Fulbanu, like a new woman deviates from that cheap accepted norm of blindly receiving patriarchal hegemony. She gains her freedom by refuting that hegemony and hierarchy created by her father and Kasem Khan. I hope, she creates an example of freedom which will become an agenda to the girls who are the victims of such oppression.At the end of the story without caring anybody and without receiving any Talaq or Divorce she just starts a new journey to an extraterrestrial being path. She does not know what fate will awaiting her. But she frees her self from the bondage of patriarchal hegemony and now she chooses a life of free bird. She wants to find her own put in to live in Virginia woolfs famous room of ones own where any bondage is prohibited. She wants to become the mistress of her own desire. Thus th e two heroines of Selina Hossains through their tragic end ( as they both do not leade a normal happy lives ) prove the dictum Every calamity is a story of survival .They both negate the traditional sexuality roles which cast men as rational, strong, protective etc, while women are emotional, weak, submissive. They prove that gender is a cultural construction, not a biological one. Men think themselves superior that is why they are superior Benedict Andersons view (4). Actually they want to prove that no one is superior from the first days. Women also know how to build equality by breaking superiority . And through these stories Selina Hossain proves herself as a feminist writer.Her characters are the representatives of the contemporary fates of South-Asian women. Her private purpose has thus become a public feminine issue. She prefers to cast her rebellion against the Patriarchal oppression not by Sword but by Pen and I hope, she is very much successful in this fact. Virgin Woo lf in her story of Judith lamented For who shall metre the heat and violence of a poets heart when caught and tangled in a womans body ? . But I hope Selina Hossain has no reason to lament because she has created writings which is totally free from male influence.And her writing may be treated under Gynocentricism (5) Elaine Showalters Concept as she in three phases ( feminine, feminist and female ) proves that she remains a fair gentle woman through her writings. Thus, through my term paper I want to tell that the women of South-Asia partly achieved their success of independence. But if there is to be a true female independence too, much remains to be done. But the struggle which has started by Motijan, Fulbanu and Selina Hossain herself is a great achievement. Their struggle is like a torch whose light will show path for the true right and freedom for women.