I, ME AND MYSELF

 

GOING BACK TO IGNORANCE?

 In older days the birth of a girl child was considered as auspicious. As per an Indian proverb, "A home without a daughter is like a body without soul". The birth of a daughter in the house was compared with the advent of Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth and Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom. No ceremony was considered to be complete in absence of women. The belief was that "No home is complete without a woman."

Worst of all she is often killed before being born while in mother's womb itself. This is fetus killing or infanticide. This is the gross downfall of humanity, morality and the values.
The situation has drastically worsened these days. Women suffer badly, infanticide have become widespread. Parents don't send daughters for schooling thinking that the daughter is going to be a kitchen confined housewife. There was, hence, decline in female literacy and her position in the society. This practice is lasting till today and the killing of fetus after the sex determination is fearlessly continued.
The God has created man and woman as the two wheels of this society cart. Those two wheels are made for each other. For the human race to exist and survive, both of the wheels must be functional else the society collapses.
In nutshell all must be kind to women with high degree of love and respect to them. There is no life without a wife and there can't be a wife in absence of girl. Considering all the facts above, save the girl child in the interest of humanity. Saving baby girls shall minimize crime and build a powerful nation.

The underprivileged girl in the society also needs proper care. They need to be educated for the development of society. Some poor parents are unable to send their children to schools and colleges, which need to be taken care. In India the gild child is exempted for school fees in government schools and colleges. What about private schools?? Why so disparity in private schools.
The fetus killing or infanticide is also a crime and taken seriously by the law. The child labor in early days of the girl child is also a big crime and viewed seriously. To make a healthy society the girl child should be taken care of with more priority.

The period was tagged Jahiliyyah period which simply translates period of ignorance. It predates the birth of the noble prophet Muhammad where a lot of atrocities were perpetrated against womenfolk who did not have any voice in the then society. At a point, female babies were buried alive at birth in that society while women were victimized and discriminated against. Ignorantly, people of that society believed that a girl child, after growing up, would neither be able to fight in a battle nor add any value to their clans. Or part of the property to be bequeathed. They were neither recognized for anything nor given any chance for such. Widows were treated as outcast. Islam came to liberate women from the shackles of oppression and patriarchal society.

In our modern society, history of these Jahiliyyah practices is repeating itself.

A few months ago a ex-colleague of mine whose wife just gave birth to a girl child was barraged by other colleagues with negative expressions amounting to lack of appreciation to the Supreme Being. The colleague, due to his own naivety, was downcast and obviously unhappy as he had perhaps expected a baby boy. I met him in a pensive mood and was surprised at his reaction. Is this not going back to the period of Jahiliyyah? I soliloquized to myself.

To him, I demonstrated in a number of ways why he should rather be grateful to the Creator. I conscientious him that whatever a man sows in the womb of his wife—whether a male or female seed—is what he reaps in baby form. I reminded him how more female students bagged first-class honors across our universities in recent times, even in Engineering and Sciences where male students had limitations to achieve the feat. I reminded him of the sayings of the prophet that if one educates a woman, one educates a nation. I added that more women take care of their parents in old ages than men. I continued until I unveiled him of sweeping ignorance which had blindfolded him before my arrival. This is just a case study of disparagement a girl child faces from her cradle in our underdeveloped society.

In this part of the world where we claim to be godly and very religious, it is easily observed that many parents evade investing their resources in female children. The most disturbing is that so many women will express their preference for a male child to a female. Their claim: that a female child is not a heir to her father’s property (in some cultures); that she will, one day, leave her father’s house and be under the umbrella of another man called her husband; that she will eventually bear another man’s name to replace that of her father’s; that she is only reduced to child-making machine and ends up in the kitchen and so on.

Sadly, at the time of my delivery, I have witnessed a situation where a man assumed to be very knowledgeable, on hearing that his wife gave birth to a baby girl which was the third in a row, started announcing to friends and associates that it was a baby boy, to cover up his shame. Situations have abounded where husbands were reported not to have visited their wife in hospital for the simple reason that such women gave birth to baby girls! Some ignorant men will even threaten and give deadlines to their wives to have a baby boy for them! Quite preposterous!

In this part of the world, people are so brainwashed, archaic and self-centered that they are reluctant to nurture a girl-child, yet it is the wish of every man of good vision to get a well nurtured, well educated, well articulated lady for a wife. It is instructive at this point to note that the high moral decadence in our society is a product of this negative attitude towards the upbringing of female children.

For heaven’s sake, the so called westerners— the Europeans and Americans— do not discriminate between male and female children. Rather, they appreciate the role of either sex by giving them their dues in upbringing and training. The former American President, Bill Clinton, has only one child—a girl! The current American President has only two children: two girls! Yet, these top citizens of the world are so content that they do not seem to be in need more off-springs, let alone boy-child. This is because, in their clime, priority is given to qualitative upbringing and development of each child—a boy or a girl—rather than the sex or multiple children at the expense of quality.

At present, me as writer also faced such problem and even today they don’t want to have a girl child for them. As a victim of family pressure on a male child, I am never budged because of my husband emphasis on quality rather than sex of the child.