Patriarchal Societies Promote Women’s Rights’ Abuses

Today’s world differentiates a lot from what it was 50 years ago. It has transformed; sometimes for the better and sometimes for worse. Places have changed and with them their people have too. In general, today’s people have more acceptance and tolerance towards one and other and are open to experiencing cultures different from their own. The Human Rights have developed and are practiced across the globe, distinguishing what is humane from what is intolerable. Unification is seen amongst countries which are willing to aid each other hence 192 countries are members of the UN with the hope of making the world a safer and healthier place for all. Over the past few decades many countries have been concentrating on maintaining equity within their people whether it’s regarding wealth between the rich and poor or equal rights between both sexes. The notion that men are the superior sex has been long forgotten for many communities. Although many countries no longer have problems between men and women, patriarchal societies still exist and it is these societies that promote women’s rights’ abuses.

Patriarchal societies consist of Third World Countries, some from the Middle East but mostly from South East Asia and Africa. Generally these countries refuse to rid themselves of ancient traditions and culture not realizing that many of these traditions must be discarded since they are unjust. For example in India where the ritual of dowries lives on and continues to cause hassle, to the extent that the largest jail of the capital has a separated quarter for mother-in-laws who murdered or abused their sons’ wives. Presently it is ‘home to roughly 120 women, some of whom are serving 20-year sentences for murdering their daughters-in-law’ (Lavin, 2006). Indians have clasped their dowry tradition for over hundreds of years although The Dowry Prohibition Act was released back in 1961 (Lavin, 2006), it fails to fulfill its purpose and so it is looked upon as a “paper tiger” (Lavin, 2006). It is said that ‘every 77minutes a dowry death is reported’ (Lavin, 2006) and in the year 2005 7,026 reported dowry deaths occurred. It is difficult to believe that a country progressing at the rate of India still stomachs such barbaric behavior that is happening in masses. One of the reasons dowries are considered so important is because of the notion that girls are burdens to their families. Girls are not expected to work in most  patriarchal societies thus when a husband takes the daughter away from a family he is doing a favor for them by releasing them from one of their burdens therefore he should be rewarded with an adequate dowry. The idea of men being the provider of the family is a primeval one since it originated in the times when men were in fact the better option for providing for the family being the physically stronger sex however this is no longer essential to successfully handle a household. A regular job accompanied with a decent wage is enough to make a woman capable of providing for herself and family. If women were encouraged to work they would never be considered a burden nor would they depend on a man for financial security. Other than limiting women from leading their own lives and forcing themselves into marriage, many patriarchal societies’ households further seize the protection and rights of women even after marriage. A sufficient amount of domestic abuse takes place in numerous Indian households, including marital rape and emotional abuse (Lavin, 2006). If women were able to support themselves they would not be forced into staying in abusive relationships. According to the book titled “Women’s Roles and statuses-The World Over” in the year of 2000, ‘the ratio of female to male enrollment in secondary school was 83 women to every 100 men’ however the number of women in post secondary schools drop significantly in comparison with only 37 women to every 100 men (Hepburn & Simon, 2007). Education and work would free many Third World women from physical and emotional abuse, girls would not be looked upon as burdens and this would lead to a decline in cases of abuse and issues such as female infanticide. Female Infanticide is most common in patriarchal societies. It is most prominent in India and China, where the number of deaths of girls shortly after birth, continues to increase (Female Infanticide). Parents prefer to have sons over daughters since daughters weigh down parents and are also more capable of dishonoring a family. Men are believed to be the ones that will ensure the family by earning money whilst women are considered the source of economic drainage for a household. Women are not only loathed due to their incapability of being profitable when it comes to bringing money home, they also become the object of abuse and murder when they fail to carry the honor of a man whether it is their father, brother or husband, lucratively. ‘Honor Killings’ is a crime that most people in developed countries would have never heard of but unfortunately these crimes are still very common in patriarchal societies. ‘Honor killings’ is the name given to the murder of a woman who was killed by family members because she had brought shame to them in some way, (Khalaf Al-Ajely, 2005). In countries such as Iraq, ‘honor killings are an accepted practice’ and usually are not reported, (Khalaf Al-Ajely, 2005). Reasons for ‘honor killings’ differ, from refusing to marry a man of the family’s choice, to marrying someone of her own choice, to being raped. The fact that an innocent woman could be murdered by her own family members for being raped by a perverted chauvinist is extremely overwhelming. Since the fall of the Saddam regime, ‘more than 400 women have been raped’ and ‘more than half of them have been murdered in honor killings’ (Khalaf Al-Ajely, 2005). Although ‘honor killings’ are equivalent to murder, culprits are treated differently despite of what authorizes say. One of the many women murdered in ‘honor killings’ in Iraq was Shawbo Rauf Ali, a 19 year old who was accused of being involved in an extra marital affair by her husband, who made this assumption based on a sole ‘unknown number that appeared on her cell phone’ (Salih, 2007).  Hawjin Hama Rashid, a Women’s Rights activist in Iraq stated that ‘honor has been a prime motivator of violence against women, because in such a patriarchal society women are considered the honor of their men’, (Salih, 2007).

Some would argue that just because a society is patriarchal it does not mean that it abuses women rights. Many women are content living in their male dominated environment. They believe that their position is below their counterparts. For many the entire purpose of living is to care for their husband and his family. A number of Muslim states are accused by the West of depriving their women of their rights and for a handful of these states, this could be true. The women in these states appear satisfied since they believe that they are truly following their religion.

Many believe that gender equality and Islamic law are two conflicting issues. According to the West, Islam is unjust to women with its attitude towards ‘polygamy, divorce, child custody, inheritance and women as witnesses’ (Mashour, 2005). However, Islam does not support injustice to women at all. It was the first religion to give women the rights to inherit from their fathers and also gives them the right to choose their husbands (Mashour, 2005). A man’s right to keep up to four wives at a time is misused by many Muslim men today, (Mashour, 2005) since there is a specific criteria to when a man could marry more than once in the Holy Qur’an. Many Muslim men find it acceptable to assault a women who dishonored them but nowhere does it say in the Qur’an that it is acceptable to take a life of a girl by the name of ‘honor crimes’, (Mashour, 2005). In the cases of Islamic States, culture is confused with religion to such an extent that people justify ‘honor killings’ by saying it is required in Islam. Women do not hesitate in following ‘Islamic’ ways since they feel that they are sacred, unaware that it is just cultural and not religious at all, ‘deterioration of women’s rights in many Islamic countries has nothing to do with their Islamic nature and that most of the gender inequalities are not based on Islam but are mainly the result of traditional, patriarchal, male dominated societies’, (Mashour, 2005) It’s true that many women do not complain of their situation from these countries but this is because they are functioned to adjust and compromise for their own well being. The girls who’s lives are not snatched from them as infants, are brought up to believe that their purpose of living is to cater and care for their future husbands and families regardless of how they are treated. So when they are abused girls are willing to bare the pain. Women in these countries do not have strong organizations that they could turn to when in need of help. Even the police are not willing to offer any assistance since such abuses are considered ‘normal’ in such societies. Not only is it difficult for women to find help, it is also difficult for them to just free themselves of such relationships. Divorce is unsupported by many families as it is looked down upon on. Divorcee girls have a hard time trying to get remarried plus the fact they   will probably not be able to support themselves financially leaves them less motivated about separation.

Ultimately, the main cause of the women’s rights abuse in patriarchal societies is the lack of education. Educated women will be aware of what is right and what is wrong, they would be aware of the help that is available for them and options other than putting up with abuse and most importantly they would be aware of their rights. They would be able to differentiate religion from culture and tradition. Also women need to realize that their position in society is equal to that of the men in their society not below them. Patriarchal societies which are mostly conservative limit their women of reaching their full potential firstly by limiting their education and secondly by enforcing cultural baggage on them which only holds them down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refrences

Al-Ajely, Z (2005) Killing for Honour. Retrieved Oct 12, 2008

fromhttp://www.peacewomen.org/news/Iraq/May05/honour.html

Female Infanticide. Global Human Rights

Hepburn, S. & Simon, R.J.(2007) Women’s Roles and Statuses-The World Over.

(Lexington Books, pp 226) . Plymouth: Estover Road  

Lavin, A. (2006). Dowry Disgrace, India’s “kitchen incident” epidemic. The Weekly Standard

Mashour, A. (2005). Human Rights Quarterly. (Baltimore May 2005.Vol.27 pp562,36pgs)

Salih, M.A. (2007) Global Information Network.

 

 

 

 

 

 




By: reeny