when religion and tradition lead to suffering. these women should band together, grow out their damn hair, wear whatever the fuck they want, start their own economy and trade with foreigners. then they should keep all the money and not give anything to their ungrateful children.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
You should check out Deepa Mehta's film Water, which was an Oscar nominee last year.
However, there are also all kinds of attitudes out there over whether this phenomenon is blown out of proportion and/or just another way for people to look at a practice that's going out of fashion anyway, and use it to make assumptions and put down "those backward Indians".
even if this phenomenon is "blown out of proportion" it still exists. this doesn't mean we should be silent about it for fear of offending indians. (remember that old slogan, "silence = death"?)
what is the bigger harm? hurting people's feelings, or allowing a defenseless and disenfranchised segment of the population to suffer and die? people are suffering, and this practice, even if it is going the way of the dodo, should be exposed. perhaps it will become extinct faster.
I do agree with you: it's important to call this practice out as barbaric (same as genital mutilation in African societies).
In thinking about it more, I thought you might be interested in the comment threads on the posts below from an Indian-American group blog. It shows that there's a big controversy about this within that culture (e.g., "airing our dirty laundry makes some people think we're all like that"). Enjoy, if it interests you.
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/002344.html
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003341.html
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004137.html
Post a Comment