International Women’s Day Do We Have A Right To Celebrate This Day?

This is definitely a serious subject that needs to be deeply contemplated upon! Because, women are the ones who bring new life into this world in the form of a child. And it is women only who take care of them, nurture and bring them up. In view of this, their status in humanity should be the highest. She takes on the role of a mother by giving birth; she’s a strong support in the form of a sister and as a lover she makes life beautiful! After all this and despite so much being said about equality and upliftment of women, none of it seems to be becoming a reality.

Though in fact, today the situation is much better than before. From being the President of a nation to the CEO of a big company, today women occupy seats everywhere. One has to agree that the present society has definitely presented them with better opportunities. The corporate world has also begun to openly welcome them. And it is also true that our progress today, is largely thanks to women playing an increasing role in the corporate and social arenas.

But it is unfortunate that even today, the upholders of religion all over the world mete out secondary treatment to women. Albeit this mind-set of all religions goes way back in time. All religions have considered most of their Gods and god-incarnates to be only men. There are also a few religions which even consider women to be the root of all evil. Even in today’s era of science, certain religious places prohibit women from entering the premises. And in the most developed of nations too, in the name of religion, women are prohibited from becoming priests, maulvis and pundits!

Why? What happiness do you get by such discriminatory behaviour towards the one who gave birth to you?! Actually, neither do the upholders of religion or their beliefs hold any value, nor do women want to ruin their lives by becoming priests or maulvis. …But the question is – religion, which should mean loving everyone and giving everyone equal rights, how can it deny women, who make up 50 percent of the population, from holding important positions?

And the more serious psychological implication of the behaviour of these upholders of religion is that it has adversely impacted the self confidence of women. And as it has been happening for over thousands of years, whether women realise it or not, but all this has been deeply embedded in their unconscious mind. And this is why on a psychological level they are forced to play second fiddle to men. But today the time has come for the upholders of religion to either accept them in all high posts, or the women themselves reject the religions in order to safeguard their respect and self confidence. Until and unless one of these two things happens, women will never be totally free from their repressed mentality. Till then, despite being no less than any man in any respect, they will never taste success in the same measure as men.

Today on International Women’s Day, in order to accord them respect I request all religions to confer equal rights and treatment. And if they do not do this, then for the sake of their own self-respect, I urge the women to free themselves from the clutches of the upholders of religion. Then see how everyone falls in line!

- Deep Trivedi