Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Vyjanthi and the princess of Oman

Yesterday, the whole world celebrated International Women's Day. It sounds rather ridiculous to celebrate a day especially for women but as long as it's necessary we will do that. According to a survey of the Virginia Commonwealth University it will take 580 years before there is gender equality in top managerial positions. Yes, we have a long way to go... Not in executive and leading positions but in almost every level.

Yesterday, I watched a very sad documentary 'No country for young girls?' about a young Indian woman who has to choose - stay with a husband who doesn't want female children, or make it on her own?

Twenty-seven year old Vyjanthi, already mother to one 3-year old girl, was forced by her husband and in-laws to have a scan to determine the sex of the foetus, when she became pregnant again. Told she was carrying a girl, they tried to pressure her to have an abortion, and after a major argument she fled to her parents' home. But she felt bad, went back to her husband, got pregnant again, and the same thing happened all over again.

Now she's living with her parents, with two young daughters - and undecided whether she can make it on her own, or will have to go back to her husband again. Sex-selective abortion is illegal in India, but so widespread that there are many more boys than girls, especially in India's more prosperous states. Vyjanthi wants to know if things are really as bad for girls in the rest of India as in her own neighborhood. Isn't India now one of the world's booming economies, thanks to its embrace of globalization?

Life takes Vyjanthi on a journey through India, and films as she makes a disturbing discovery. Just because a country's becoming richer, doesn't actually mean life's going to be better for most people. In fact the status of women in India is falling behind that of women in many other countries, even in South Asia, and the newly prosperous middle class are particularly likely to abort female foetuses.

Will Vyjanthi decide that India can offer her and her daughters a fair and prosperous future on their own? Or will she decide that India is no country for young girls, and go back to her husband?

Heartbreaking documentary, but very inspiring to see that women are 'searching' for what they want for themselves. Vyjanti was my hero.

Vyjanthi's journey ended in Bangalore, the place where I have met another, of a very different level, woman a couple of years ago, the Omani princess Susan al Said. She is an empowering woman who fights for women's rights in Oman. American by birth, Omanese and muslim by marriage, she also owns a galery in Muscat. We had a nice and long chat after her speech at this woman's conference in Bangalore. She was very curious about my magazine and took with her three copies of SEN, folded in a veil, because it contented 'obscene' images (according to Omanese Arab standards). She said it could take decades before something like SEN could be possible in her country; if ever possible.

Vyjanthi and princess Susan, both so different women with a totally different background, and yet so close to each other, both trying to balance out stereotypes. That's so inspiring! I wish everybody a happy International Women's Day!