The book is about the plights of the protagonist in the Muslim conservative regime in Iran. She speaks how the religiously blinded authority made the life of women (and men too) highly difficult. Now when you look at it, isn’t it the same in India too? Women are highly oppressed here! Now there is another dimension to it - add religion, now you have got everything!
To quote an idea from the book, If God wanted women to hide their hair, he/she would have made them bald! I had a friend in college, who had to wear a veil since her family forced her to. The first year of the college, she used to wear it; but slowly she ended up wearing the veil only when she is going back home.
I am some one who does not believe in God. The religion, in my arrogant opinion, should only be a solace, for the one's in need. When it becomes a weapon for oppression, it should be uprooted. There is no evil larger than the one which is spawned in the false name of God. There is nothing barbaric than forcing ladies to wear a veil, to consider them lesser souls.
India as a country is growing economically. But as a society we are going back. In my state Kerala, I see more women covered from top to bottom, than 5 years back. And if one is foolish enough to believe that they are not doing that out of compulsion, then one is a hippocratic bastard with crow shit for brains.
last sentence was too much :)
ReplyDeletei knw many who wear it out of their own strong belief.
I know some too...But the sudden surge in the number of 'fully covered' ladies does evoke a feeling that there is an increase in the compulsion!
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