GENDER FRAUD

GENDER FRAUD


I can’t help that I am but
Simply a poor female,
Frail in heart and frail in mind,
My body, too, is frail.

‘Frailty, thy name is woman’,
I’m often reminded.
‘Vanity, thou art woman’,
I’m laughingly chided.

God, why did you, in this world,
Me, as a woman, bring?
Please tell me what was my crime.
I’m called a sinful thing!

I’m worth only half a man,
If, at all, I survive.
Attempts are made on my life;
To live, I have to strive.

I live a life of bondage,
Without independence.
I can’t eat what I may like;
My dress is an offence!

Big men, with a big conscience,
Have all an ogling spree.
To avoid temptation, they
Cover up all of me!

Man is free and powerful,
He is independent.
He can survey all he wants,
He can walk confident.

Am I not Your own daughter?
Pray tell me this, O God:
Is it You? Or, is it man,
Who’s played on me this fraud?


* Written in abcb 7-6-7-6 format

* Female foeticide [sex selective abortion of female foetus] and female infanticide are still practiced in many oriental societies.


* Females are neglected, compared to males, in poor countries all over the world, including the East, as regards food, health and education.

* Bride torture and killing, [for bringing less than demanded dowry], continues in many oriental societies.

* Woman is often considered in many cultures to be sinful, in the sense that she induces man to temptation and sin.

* The following pertain to Muslim countries:


>As per Muslim law, a woman’s testimony is only worth half that of a man. In counter-argument in a Muslim law [Shariat law] court, a man’s statement can be challenged only if two women, not one, testify against him.


>There is a practice in some Muslim societies that a girl, who elopes or marries against parental consent or otherwise tarnishes ‘family honour’, is killed. Such ‘honour killing’, though found in some non-muslim traditional societies also, is more common in some Muslim countries and even has legal sanction under Muslim Shariat law and local muslim tribal laws.

>Women in some Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are not allowed to go out of home alone without male escort. Even when they do thus go out, they must cover the body from head to toe except for two holes in the veil for eyes. This is particularly true in orthodox groups like Taliban and the followers of Wahabi brand of hard core Islam, centered in Saudi Arabia, where members of a moral or religious police, wielding a stick, hit a woman if her hair is visible or ankles are exposed!


M C Gupta
Created: 18 September 2003