Title: South Asian women

South Asia is a home to around a fifth of the world population. Though today this

region is characterized by high economic growth for the past 10-15 years, yet

poverty is also a reality along with illiteracy, backwardness and a large population.

In South Asia, the rigid cultures and discriminatory attitudes towards women

have led to the exploitation of women, from individual to community levels. Women

and girls in this region are exposed to biased, inequitable practices and violent

behaviors at all stages of life.

In absence of a state support structure, the family plays a major role in this

culture and this affects women more than men. All South Asian cultures are

patriarchal. There is a lot of value placed on the birth of a son and one of the major

problems facing the family today is declining sex ratio. Gender based violence is a

universal reality of South Asian region regardless of income, class and culture.

Gloria steinem has rightly said that

​ “We've begun to raise daughters more like sons…

but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters. ”
The details of the affliction of women in South Asia from birth to death is as follows:

➢ From birth to death, she goes through a painful phase. In reality she is a
puppet who first works at her father, then her brother, then her husband and
then after all according to her son's will. She has no own life.

➢ Daughter has no respect and love than a son. She is suffering from mental to
physical abuse since childhood. She is neither allowed to study nor enjoy her
childhood. Majority of the people neither accept nor interact with their
daughters. In this region, those people are not seen with respect who talk to

their daughters.
➢ When she grows up slightly, she is forced to marry someone whom she
doesn't know. Whether she is older than a person or he is older than her.
Whether he does not deserve her, parents only see their own interest in this

matter. In fact it is not marriage but it is a deal for parents and compromise for
the girl.

➢ One of the most extreme forms of domestic violence is the continued

occurrence of stove burning. Many of these burnings appear carried out by
husbands and in laws due to dissatisfaction with the victims dowry.

➢ After marriage (compromise) when her husband and in laws does not behave
well, parents forced her to compromise and bear the hardships with patience.
In-laws forced the woman to give the birth to boy. If she give the birth to girls,
she is divorced or sometimes she has to face mental and physical abuse

throughout the life.

➢ Sex selection during pregnancy is still rampant in India, where women are
forced to abort a female fetus. In one of the rural areas of India, it happened
that woman come home from hospital cradling her newborn daughter, her
mother in law mashed a poisonous coriander into the dollop of oil and forced it
down the infant’s throat. The reason behind it was that, sacrificing a daughter
guarantees a son in next pregnancy.

➢ In this region, people are mostly uneducated and they do not have awareness
of family planning phenomenon. In many areas the couples are forced by
elderly members of family, particularly mother-in-law, to keep on taking
chances for the birth of a baby boy, which in many cases results in the birth of
five or six girls.

➢ In some cases, parents compel their daughter to leave her husband for their
own interests, but she would not want to separate her children with their
father.
 ➢ The girl who get love marriage is killed by her father or brother. And the men
of house consider it their own honor. They have to kill her to keep up their
status in society.

➢ In South Asia working women are also not acceptable. To make money they
have to face many difficulties. In which sexual harassment, attitude of humility
and despair are superior. That is why majority of the women are only

housewives. In this region, women's contribution in the activities that are

recognized by definition as economic activities also remain unrecognized and
non-enumerated. This is due to cultural and traditional values which constrain
recognition of women's economic participation.

➢ The incidents of abuse of women detained by police and the involvement of

policemen engaged in the rape of women during imprisonment are reported
commonly. Incidents of the rape of women in police custody are also reported

very commonly.
The reasons that cannot stop violence against women in South Asia are as follows :

● In South East Asia, most of the societies are predominantly patriarchal. The
customary thought of the people is that “girls are born to be fed throughout

their lives” and“boys are born to earn and support the whole family”. This

thought is a major hurdle in changing the position of South Asian women.

● The only man is not responsible for oppression of woman, but the woman is
also responsible for oppression of the woman. The woman enjoys the
oppression of the other woman and support the man in this matter. For

instance, mother-in-law is responsible for the brutality on her daughter in law.

● In this region, some ancient traditions and customs are still followed
promoting various forms of violence against women. These include honor

killing, exchange marriages, marriage to Quran, Karo-Kari, bride price, dowry,

female circumcision, questioning women ability to testify, confinement to

home, denying their right to choose the partner etc are the reasons due to
which South Asian women cannot get rid of brutalism.
 ● The religions in South Asia are also not playing role to change the mindset of
the people in this region.

The major religions in South Asia are Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and
Sikhism. But unfortunately, people belonging to these religions do not support the

position of women in their religions. Every man who belongs to any religion, only

remembers his own rights and ignores the rights of the woman. In case of women's
rights, he forgets his religious teachings and prefers customs and traditions just to

prove the woman less and prove himself powerful.

Islam:​​It is a biggest religion of South Asia. Although Quran emphasizes the equal

treatment of all Islamic people, throughout the history, the patriarchy has continued
to oppress Muslim women since the religion was founded. Although the introduction

of Islamic principles was a step in the right direction, men kept the dominant position

and women were required to be obedient to their husbands. This was less due to the
teachings of the religion but more so due to the mindset of the era. This was mostly

due to the cultural norms and was seen a way of life by local community. The three
main things which ​Sharia law introduced were women's rights to marriage,

inheritance and divorce. Muslims always hold back their Islamic teachings. They
always abject their women and only prefer their own rights. As Tariq Ramadan said

“Islam has no problem with women, but Muslims do clearly appear to have

serious problems with them.”

Hinduism ​is the second largest religion of South Asia. In Hinduism, women are

displayed as equal or even greater than men, for instance ​Kali Ma ​(Dark mother) “is
the Hindu goddess of creation, preservation and goddess of destruction” her power

symbolized the origin of all creation’s life as well as end of life. Another important
female figure is ​Shakti, ​a goddess that is embodied as the energy of the universe​,

“​​often manifested ​to destroy demonic forces and restore balance”. While Hinduism

illustrates women as important figures that play an important role in understanding

how the world works, women in Hindu society have been diminished throughout the

time due to outside forces that cause “girls being made to feel lesser and not as
important as boys”. Due to its strong traditions in Hindu society, the position of the

woman not equal. In Hindu religion, the dead bodies burn after death and according
to their tradition, the widow is forced to die in the same fire. ​The Thomson Reuters

Foundation released its results Tuesday of a survey of 550 experts on women's

issues, finding in South Asia, India to be the most dangerous nation for sexual

violence against women, as well as forced labour, forced marriage, human trafficking

for domestic and sexual slavery, among other reasons.

Christianity ​is also major religions. According to Christian Bible, wives are expected

to be submissive in many ways. As according to scripture in Genesis, “the Lord God

said, it is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”

The passage suggests that women are to play a supportive role to men and is
supported in further passage from Christian scripture. For example, in ​colossians

and ​Peter ​the specific passages call for women to submit to their husbands and to

stay silent in their shadow. Unfortunately, in South Asia Christians are also doing the
same thing with their women as in Hinduism and Islam. Actually Christians are in

minority, in every country of South Asia, so they can not enjoy the proper rights of
taking education and getting job opportunities. So they remain uneducated and they

do not give rights to their women.

Buddhism ​can be considered to be revolutionary within the social and political

realms of ancient India in regards to the role of women. During this time period,

members of the highest Hindu caste, called ​Brahmins ​did not allow women to have
any involvement with religious rites or sacred texts of the vedas. Women were

further oppressed by the sacred texts of the Hindu code called ​Laws of Manu which
stated that “By a girl, by a young woman, or even an aged one, nothing must be

done independently, even in her own house”. In childhood a female must be subject
to her own father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a

woman must never be independent. Rinpoche states that while the underlying nature
of the ‘Patriarchal system’ that still exists today creates more obstacles and
limitations for women in Buddhism, she believes that there is a changing dynamic

and optimistic future for women within the Buddhist community.

Judaism ​is also a religion of South Asia. The role of women in Judaism is

determined by the Hebrew Bible, the oral law, by custom and by non religious
cultural factors. Although the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature mention various

female role models, religious law treats women differently in various circumstances.

Throughout historical Jewish texts, all people were seen equal under the highest

level: God. The Hebrew Bible states that “man” was made both “male” and “female”,

a dual gender, but was later separated into male and female. In Judaism, God has
never been exclusively viewed as male or masculine, but rather, he obtains both

masculine and feminine qualities. The role of women in traditional Judaism has been

grossly misrepresented and misunderstood. The position of women is not nearly as

lowly as many modern people think. With the passage of time people of this region

preferred their tradition instead of their religion. Which is condemnable.

Sikhism ​is also a religion of South Asia. According to Sikhism, men and women are

two sides of the same coin of the human. There is a system of interrelation and

interdependence where man takes birth from woman and woman is born of a man

seeds. The founder of Sikhism, ​Guru Nanak ​reportedly said in 1499 that “it is a
woman who keeps the race going” and that we should not “consider woman cursed

and condemned, when from woman are born leaders and rulers”. Gradually, like

other religions, people of Sikhism prefer their traditions and forget their religious

teachings.

Similarly, other religions of South Asia also fail to give the woman its position
in society.

In South Asian countries the amalgamation of Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic,

Jewish and Christian traditions have shaped the personalities of women and

determined their social status. Rigid cultures and patriarchal attitudes which devalue
the role women, result in the widespread occurrence of violence against women. The

family structure, in which the man is the undisputed ruler of the household, and
activities within the family are seen as private, allows violence to occur at home. As
well as traditional forms of violence such as wife-battering and sexual assault,

women in these countries are also exposed to dowry crimes such as bride burning,

kidnapping for purpose of prostitution etc.

The impact of cultural violence on women's mental health is very bad. A

meta-analysis of 13 epidemiological studies in different regions of India revealed an

overall prevalence rate of mental disorders in women of 64.8 per thousand. Women

had significantly higher prevalence rates for neuroses, affective disorders and

organic psychos than men. A survey carried out in Nepal demonstrated that women

had a higher psychiatric morbidity than men, with the sex ratio of 2.8​:​1 in the health
post and 1.1​:​1 in the district hospital. A study in Bangladesh showed that the sex

ratio for mental disorders was 2 ​:​1 and that for suicide was 3​:​1. A study carried out in

Pakistan showed that factors associated with depressive disorders in upper and

middle class women were martial conflicts 25.5%, conflict with in-laws 13%, financial

dependency 10%, lack of meaningful jobs 14% and stress of responsibilities at home
and at work 9%. In this region the mental distress usually remains unacknowledged.

Finally, the recent economic reforms in South-East Asia have been accompanied by

a rise in the incidence of reported domestic violence, rape and alcohol abuse.

In the light of the facts stated above,there should be some suggestions to

prevent the violence against women. ​Isabel Guerrero ​(former World Bank South

Asia vice president) said that

“We could not keep silent in the face of horrific acts, together, we wanted to

understand complexity, scale and gravity of violence against women, so that

we could make a step forward to overcome it”

These suggestions are following

● The literacy rate should be increased by the governments of all states present
in South Asia. Literacy training provides adult women with in the opportunity

to learn how to read and write.

 ● Health care seminars should be organized by the authorities . These seminars
teach women how to properly take care of their pregnancies, their babies,
their homes and families, which empowers them inside the home.

● Government should make strict laws and those men should be strictly
punished who harass the women.

● Income generating gifts should be given to women to take care of themselves

and their families if their husbands are struggling to provide, unemployed or

incapacitated due to alcohol or other addictions.

● Media should start a campaign to make the people aware against the
oppression on women.

● Policies should also incentivize women to form social networks and use them
to enable women to overcome traditional barriers to their mobility.

● Promote women's leadership and economic empowerment to promote

peaceful coexistence, build social cohesion and strengthen resilience at the

community level.

● Expand and deepen a data-driven evidence base on the drivers of extremist

violence by sex and its impact on women and girls.

● Ensure national and regional counter-terrorism frameworks integrate gender

and are informed by experience of women.

● Local leaders should be encouraged to change antiquated social norms.

If we follow these suggestions, then we can play a vital role to put the woman in her

place in society. A time would come when South Asian woman enjoys the respect

and equal rights in society.