: “Male chauvinism thrives on the fear of rape among women. When women learn to surpass this fear mentally and physically, it will have no base to exist,” said gender activist M. Sulfath, urging women to come out paying no heed to rape threat.
The discussion on ‘Gender Equality and Malayali Society’ was one of the most popular events at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on its final day on Sunday. The panel consisted of people representing various spectrums of the fight for gender equality who lucidly explained their point while the audience was equally responsive, demanding the organisers to stretch the session.
Dinu K., a student who recently faced expulsion from his college on the charges of sitting beside a girl student, said ‘gender equality and Malayali society’ was as odd a combination as “halwa and fish curry,” as this was a society that made the demarcation between the hunter and the hunted very clear. “Many in our society consider the fight for gender equality as one for open sex. There are even teachers who think so. As long as internal marks hang as a sword above their heads, the students cannot react,” he said adding that youngsters, though scared to support the campaign openly, were favourable to changes at heart.
Defence against sexual violence alone was not empowerment of woman. Various policies supposedly framed to protect women from rape, actually served the purpose of restricting her worth to her body, Ms. Sulfath said while activist A.K. Jayasree alleged that the current family set-up was formed for the benefit of man due to his insecurities. Batting for the rights of sexual minorities, she said the idea of a family based on reproduction alone would be jeopardised with the advancement of technologies such as artificial insemination.
Sheethal Shyam, a transgender activist, was very vocal about the rights of a person to choose his/her gender, clothing and even ideologies. She said the set ideas of how a male or female should dress were archaic and everyone should choose their own dress code.
Activist Reshma Bharadwaj alleged that the Europeans had induced into Indian society the idea of female as subservient while Indian society before their arrival considered women powerful enough to make and earn on their own and they shared rights equal to that of man.
The panel called for a renaissance of women’s movements and reclaiming of freedom of movement. Dinu demanded awareness programmes on gender justice for boys and men and called upon the campuses to rise in rebellion against such inequalities.
Revival of women’s movements, awareness sessions for men, among suggestions
