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| Sunday, 05 March 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Are women really independent? by Ranga Chandrarathne With the women's day around the corner, it is worthwhile for each and every citizen to ponder on whether the Sri Lankan women are really free, even after decades of enjoying universal suffrage and near equal access to upward social mobility for women in professional and political spheres of life. It is contradictory that the country, which produced the world's first woman Prime Minister and a woman President, is still lacking freedom for women. Older generation, especially lower middleclass, and certain sections in the interior parts of the country uphold traditional values and customs that institutionalized certain restrains on women's social mobility. These values and customs dictate certain set-behaviours for women, and virtually confine them to the traditional role of bearing and rearing children. Time is ripe for each and every citizen to think seriously on the validity and the practicality of those beliefs associated with social norms, which most of us today take for granted. Anushka is a busy medical officer in a General (Teaching) hospital. She says those who represent the upper middle class, such as herself, have freed from the mind-forged-shackles of customs and tradition imposed restrictions; she has to go into a society, which still believes, on the set-role for women. "I am still single and I do not want to get married to please my parents. It is a pity that certain sections of the society treat single women as easy preys. One fine day, at dawn, I took a trishaw to the hospital, the trishaw -driver trapped in his early forties, in the middle of the journey and asked whether I was married. I told 'yes' to avoid a series of questions. He then asked why did I not travel with my husband in a car. Suddenly , through the gap between the front seat and mine, he put his hand and squeezed my leg, while mentioning that he knew well women's nature. I was shocked at the way men took liberties with women. When I got down at the hospital, he asked for my mobile phone number, which I refused and said that I had more experience in life than him. And I very politely asked him to mind his own business. This shows that society at large, still entertain prototype beliefs and treat single women professionals as easy preys ". Ms. Sunethra Bandaranaike has strong views to express on the attitudes of society towards single women, particularly if they are successfully pursuing a career. She herself has taken a firm decision to live on her own. She says she enjoys having her own space and her independence. "I am very flattered at the attention they pay me, but it is still a problem for single career women to have to contend with men whose upbringing and egos do not enable them to approach women as their equals. There appears to be a sense of competition in men with women who are successful in life. There are some signs that this is breaking down with the younger generation but we have a long way to go" she added. Saman is a banking executive who works in a leading commercial bank in Colombo. " I think women are also to be blamed for the situation. This happens very often when a woman heads a department or an institution; she treats her women sub-ordinates shabbily and it is also a woman who demands dowry from another woman, when her son gets married. I remember one incident where a would-be-mother-in-law demanded a sum of Rs. one million for her engineer son, when a proposal was made. The mother of the daughter-in-law to be, offered a sum of seven hundred thousand rupees, but the would-be-mother-in-law stuck to her demand, and the father of the daughter-in-law to be, had to retire and give his provident fund to settle the pre-marriage dispute. However, women still, it seems, depend on males, especially Asian women, because most of them still believe in traditional role dictates by Asian society. In Sri Lanka, still women have not been able to change their mind-set and are, more or less, afraid to lead a single life ". |
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