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.
