Of Glass Ceilings and Placards.....

Equality and freedom is something modern women have come to take for granted. It is a gift which requires no thanks or gratitude. It is ours for the taking. I am one of them. Like other women of my generation, I have been handed an easy life. We have never been denied the right to go to school, to work, to walk the streets alone, to laugh, talk, wear colorful clothes or make up. Showing our ankle is not a crime. This is the world I live in. Should we be thankful for these things? I don’t know – after all aren’t some of these basic human rights? Or do we need to call them women’s rights?

Let’s take a journey to Afghanistan – the beautiful country with beautiful people, a troubled past and an uncertain future. Here amidst the many mountainous valleys you will find the answer to my question. Here human rights are not women’s rights. Where Taliban or no Taliban, women are mistreated beyond belief. I was transported to this hell on heaven through a moving and revealing book called “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khalid Hosseini. It made me curious to learn more about Afghanistan and its women. A country so close in geographical proximity to mine but far removed with regards to the ways of life, and the treatment of women. Here a life of dignified freedom is still a distant dream for most women and yet they carry on bravely, some risking their lives by participating in politics or exposing the crimes of the Taliban. To me it is another Holocaust – where physical atrocities aside, the human spirit is minced to a pulp without remorse or guilt. And all I can do is read. The frustration of being powerless starts to creep in. I am an educated, working woman, juggling work and family, free to do as I please, one among the men, I am empowered. Or am I?

As the book raced through my mind on the drive back home – I feel a sense of anger. Why do the true power wielders from the other so-called developed nations, the Governments, the humanitarian organizations sit back and watch. Are they doing nothing? With this question in mind I stepped down from the car as I reached home – and what I saw left me speechless. All the thoughts on women’s rights, equality etc etc came crashing down. There on a huge glass placard stuck to the wall that contained apartment numbers and corresponding owners was the real answer. Eternia I N32 – Mr Kaushik Madhavan – I read silently. This was my home too I thought, I cough up half of that dreaded EMI, I live in it, why has my name been left out? Then a closer examination tells me I am not the only one at the receiving end of this planned omission – all the flat owners are coincidentally –Men.

That night I entered my home- feeling like a cast away. Like I was still paying rent. It struck me that, this is just a small example of how it still exists – the inequality, the injustice – tucked away here and there waiting to pounce on you like a ghost from the past. But it is sadly the present, from the killing of the girl child in villages to the discrimination at job interviews (Are you married? Do you have kids?).

Has the experience taught me to be more grateful as a woman in today’s modern society? Yes and No. Yes because I want to recognize the suffering of women in parts of my country and other countries who fight back with dignified patience, that I will never know...their spirits too strong to be broken by the injustice that is doled out to them. No, because like the women of modern society we have not been blessed with this quiet dignity. We must fight to have our way. And that is what I will do, to get my name etched against the apartment that I co-own. To others, it may seem, small , insignificant, almost trivial. But to me this is more than just about a glass placard.