WOMEN ARE NOT FROM VENUS-III

YASRA DAUD KHOKER

In the novel ‘Impassioned Clay’, by Welsh novelist Stevie Davies, Olivia and her father come upon the remains of a 17th-century woman while digging a grave (for Olivia’s dead mother) in the yard of a house that had been in their family for generations. Dating from the civil war, the woman had been buried with a frightful contraption around her face – a “scold’s bridle”, an iron mask with a spiky inward projection pressed against one’s tongue that inflicted a tremendous amount of pain if the smallest attempts to speak were made, rendering the person unable to speak. The inhumane device was essentially a mechanism of torture employed in Scotland, Wales and England (who had set out to civilize the crude East) which was used to silence heretics and women perceived as ‘troublesome’. Many other such fearsomely barbaric devices caged women, restricted them and curbed their freedom in the most humiliating ways like shrew’s fiddles, chastity belts, etc. Hundreds of years have passed since, and a great change has come in society, however, women continue to fight. They have won the right to vote, they work in public and private spheres, they make important decisions regarding
their lives yet, it all remains futile if a girl child is suffocated to death even before she glances at the world around her.

The ugly face of persecution of women peers at us through shameful acts like female foeticide. Today, there might not be iron contraptions to seal her mouth shut, but technology in the hands of feudal minds continues to debilitate women.
Sexist attitudes against women and the prevalence of social ills like the dowry system which reduces the girl child to a burden, an obligation and duty, devoid of any emotional attachment, wipe any hope of societal change. Artist Chintan Upadhyay, originally from Rajasthan and currently based in Delhi, deems such acts the breeding ground for further violence against women, be it dowry deaths, forced abortions, sexual abuse or domestic violence. In 2007, his installation and set of drawings featured in a show at Jawahar Kala Kendra (Jaipur) titled ‘Tentuaa Dabaa Do’ (kill her) raising the issue of female foeticide with the help of some very heart-wrenching visuals.