{"id":2730,"date":"2014-02-14T07:58:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T07:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2014\/02\/14\/dev-virahsawmy-17\/"},"modified":"2018-07-29T22:40:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T18:40:45","slug":"dev-virahsawmy-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/dev-virahsawmy-17\/","title":{"rendered":"A woman is not a man\u2019s chattel1 !"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s honestly face it!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently the whole Republic was appalled by a series of horrendous murders perpetrated by criminal male chauvinistic pigs. Reactions were diverse ranging from genuine consternation and search for solutions to the demagogic scapegoat hunting \u2013 a favourite hobby in our country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of trying to find the root cause of such gruesome deeds, gossip-ridden Mauritius has chosen anonymity through free-media outlets and the Internet to spew out their ignominious disgrace. And worse, the \u2018has been\u2019 leader of REMAKE and his not less \u2018has been\u2019 deputy-leader who has given up rational thinking for a long time now, think that the solution is in state-killing. According to their warped minds more killing will lead to less killing. The Remake leadership seems to be getting closer and closer to fundamentalist ideology as it vociferates its favourite anthem: \u201cPa Mwa Sa, Li Sa.\u201d But who is to blame? Aren\u2019t we all to some extent responsible?<\/span><\/p>\n

All Those P\u2019s<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The vast majority of P\u2019s (politicians, parliamentarians, pastors, priests, pundits, preachers, professors and paterfamilias) should have a frank look at themselves and most probably they\u2019ll see each an unrepentant machismo bent on shamelessly enjoying the rights and privileges of a male-dominated society. Those who spontaneously rush into the bloodthirsty arms of Capital Punishment; those who instinctively describe the Almighty in terms of male stereotypes; those whose brains are governed by their lower centres; those who think that a woman is nothing but a man\u2019s chattel; those who think that a woman is only a reproductive machine with no right to enjoy a healthy sexual life; those who think that a woman should be tied barefoot and pregnant to the kitchen sink; those who teach male superiority to young people, etc., etc., have an enormous direct and indirect burden of guilt each time a crazy male bastard butchers a woman just because she wants freedom, dignity and the right to live her own life and be able to dispose of her life and body as she wishes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender Equality<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Gender equality means that both men and women have the same rights; that differences are not expressions of inequality. This is what higher civilisation should be about. This concerns all of us. Let us not be blinded by just economic growth which in the age of global warming and climate change needs to be sobered down specially when it is powered by selfishness and cupidity. Gender equality rhymes with food security, solidarity and sharing. It should motivate economic stakeholders who can think beyond the bottom line; political leaders who can transcend petty vested interests; religious leaders who are not blinded by cheap ritualistic theatricals and dogmatic orthodoxy; and teachers who are prepared to study and teach the basics of sociology and anthropology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us not waste time shedding crocodile tears or launch the Republic into a massive hysterical fit. It is an uphill fight and collective efforts governed by a serene outlook will certainly see us through and usher us into a new dawn of love and care.<\/span><\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup><\/em><\/strong>something (such as a slave, piece of furniture, tool, livestock, etc.) that a person owns other than land or buildings<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 14 February 2014<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s honestly face it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[4359,582,11726],"class_list":["post-2730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-capital-punishment","tag-dev-virahsawmy","tag-remake"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-I2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}