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Friday, September 19, 2014

This article was written by me as a part of my college magazine but it became much more than just that. Magazine Ground Zero's first edition talks about women as power houses and while we spoke about powerful women, could not however ignore the condition of rural women in our country.

This photo shoot is the story of a young girl from a small village in India. At an age where she should have books in her hands, she is being forced into marriage. According to the indian traditions and culture, a girl is the Laxmi (goddess of wealth) of the house. She is to bring luck, success and wealth to her husband's home even if it becomes the very end of her own dreams. Her life. Her identity. This is her story. And many, many other's. Have a read. Share your views.

Woman is not born. She is made. In the making, her humanity is destroyed. She becomes a symbol of this, an example of that. Mother of the earth, slut of the universe. But she never becomes herself because it is forbidden for her to do so. The Indian woman fights each day to survive in this male dominated country. For a developing nation on its way to greatness, India’s treatment towards its women is appalling.

It is ironical how we live in a country where women are worshipped as goddesses yet they are abused, shunned and killed in the womb. It is said that medieval India was considered to be the ‘Dark Age’, due to the foreign invasions it was one of the worst periods for women. A lot of new rules were made and old ones broken. Women were asked to stay in the four walls of their houses. They were treated as the property of their fathers, brothers and then their husbands. They were raped and beaten. Misogyny existed then. It exists now.

A country whose father of the nation gave the slogan ‘Nari Shakti’ struggles today to protect and respect their very own. Sexual abuse, sati, child marriage, are not merely stories narrated to us from our history textbooks but are more real than our deepest, darkest fears. Indian marriage is sanctity. Bliss for women. It is the marking of a new life but not when you’re under 18 and definitely not when you are forced into it. Especially when it comes to rural women, they do not rebel against their spouse in the fear of losing their economic support. There is also a lurking fear of rejection which makes them put up with abuse as their ‘destiny’.

In its true sense, a woman straddles between two extreme ideologies of conscious imprisonment, downsizing them to be either or both a Goddess and a slut. Anything in its extremity can conspire upon a woman with its shadow of enslavement. Reputation and respect both in a famous and an infamous manner cast down upon her like waves on shore rocks, breaking them patiently with every conscious blow. Amidst the conspicuous normality, one which in itself is a matter of debate among many, lies a whole spectrum of other staggering disempowerments mellowing down a lady’s womanhood to the bare tatters as it can now be seen. Girls are made to feel like a piece of meat, made to feel if they walk out of their house wearing short clothes, they are all harlots enticing ‘the man’ to rape them.

To think a girl isn’t capable enough of taking care of herself in the 21st century when she has literally reached the moon and back, shows how corrupt and hollow our mindset really is. It is time we stand up for what rightfully is ours. Rabindranath Tagore in one of his poems said, “O Lord Why have you not given woman the right to conquer her destiny?Why does she have to wait head bowed, By the roadside, Waiting with tired patience, Hoping for a miracle in the morrow?” And we keep holding onto that...

“Her eyes are mirrors, stare deep into them and you might find where you lost yourself on the way. She can stare right through your soul, right through your broken pieces and mend you as if you were made of clay. She’s a miracle if you’d believe her to be”