Walls women make, walls that keep women inside

The most amazing thing in the news in the last 24 hours has been the Wall of Women across Kerala: Vanitha Mathil.

In case you are like me and you are sometimes so absorbed in something you miss big headlines, here are some links to catch you up:

• Vanitha Mathil Wikipedia page 
• Tweets about the Women's Wall
• Women's wall in Kerala today: All your questions answered, Indian Express, January 1, 2019.
• Lakhs of Kerala women form 620 km long 'renaissance' wall, The Week, January 1, 2019.
• Reactions (News Minute)

The day's action culminated in the entry of two women into Sabarimala. 

Should women be excluded from anything? No, no one should be excluded anywhere. Having stated this, I have always thought--(1) why would I want to go somewhere where I am not wanted? and (2) what is the meaning of 'going' anywhere if the divine is everywhere? But I do understand this particular struggle is about fighting exclusion and it is about challenging taboos that are deeply embedded in our hearts and minds, and consequently, lives. 

Today, as the temple authorities closed the temple to purify the premises after two women of menstruating age had visited, many have equated menstrual and gender-based taboos to untouchability. They have a strong point. 

But what boggles my mind as I write this is the mobilization of so many women. They came out to uphold their right to enter a temple and either politics or faith brought them out to the streets. It is so hard to get people to come to anything, to take a public stand, to join a protest, that just the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of women is intrinsically remarkable. 

What will happen after this? Joining a protest is exciting and it's empowering. Will these women join in other protests? How many will become a little more vocal at home? How many will encouragowering to feel that you can make a difference when you get together in large numbers--large numbers that are possible because you joined. How many of these women will continue on to take pae their daughters to learn about public affairs and to take a stand? 

What a magical opening to the year in a country declared 'no place for women'! How can we sustain this mobilization and draw the same women into other critical political and policy conversations?

Women forming a wall make an impressive picture. How do we break the walls that keep them from seeking public activism on a regular basis? 

The Inexplicable 30%: A Postscript

Postscript to "And what if their baby could choose?"

The newspaper that carried that report conducted a poll whose results as of this morning were depressing: 47% favoured sex selection, 47% opposed it and 6% could not decide. By the time the poll closed, this had, happily changed, although not enough: 70% oppose, 25% favour, and 4% cannot decide.

What accounts for this 30%? So much in a poll depends on phrasing. What if the question posed was: is it right to abort a foetus because it is female? Would it have been so hard for the 4% to decide?

So much in a lawsuit depends on the frame of the argument. What is truly disturbing about this is its choice of a right to freedom of choice frame. It subverts the liberal opposition to any modification of the pre-conception and Pre-natal diagnostic tests (prohibition of sex selection) Act by using its language to further a very fundamental discriminatory attitude built into our society. It obfuscates what is to most of us a very obvious choice. And it raises secondary issues about the conditions in which the decision to abort (or in the mirror image way the issue is framed in the US, the right to choose to abort) is acceptable if this is not.

The campaign against female infanticide and foeticide has been waged with varying success across several planes--the legal, the moral, the intellectual and the political. A sampler of this campaign is available here.

Right thoughts, right speech, right society

This morning I read two articles that brought home to me, not for the first time, how incurable and insufferable the snob within can be.

The first is an article about a new manual for Indian Army wives. It tells them how to dress, how to speak and how to carry themselves. I urge you to read it because even the most superficial attempt to summarize or comment further will send me on a rampage. For this moment, I am choosing to find this amusing and anachronistic, just so I will have energy for the rest of the day. But one tiny thought must be expressed: all of us making a case for the importance of considering women in our contemplations on security, look no further, it's all in her manners!

One person says in the second article that he gets tired of responding to the racist attitudes embedded in the polite conversation addressed to blacks. This article takes on those nice things people think they are saying about those whose competence surprises them, only because they actually expect very little from their class, caste or colour.

References:
Anjali Puri, Minding Mrs. Manners, Outlookindia.com, February 12, 2007.
Lynnette Clemetson, The Racial Politics of Speaking Well, New York Times, February 10, 2007.