Not long ago I was invited by my immediate young sister to mediate in an issue in which her husband barefacedly burnt her face with hot water. The wrangle was triggered by my sister’s proposal that she wanted to go to the university to further her studies in Business Administration.
The husband brushed off the idea as rubbish and a way of trying to find another man. As my sister was trying to justify her right to further her education, the husband flew into a hot temper and splashed hot water on my sister’s face that left her terribly burnt.
WHY ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN LIBERATION?
The unspeakable burnings on the face of my sister shocked me to the bone marrow. Upon seeing the terrible burnings, there was nothing for me to do than to make her pack her belongings and get back to my parents’ home for good. But being a Catholic Priest, I am bound not to encourage divorce but reconciliation. For sure I helped them patch up however with great struggle. It was later on when it dawned upon me that the call for justice in our modern society is incomplete if it does not advocate for women’s liberation.
My sister’s horrific burnings on the face reminded me of the United Nations Charter of 1945. This Charter has a preamble which clearly states that the organisation is determined to re-affirm faith the equal rights of men and women. In spite of this declaration, women today are still being subjected to all sorts of injustices. It is these injustices against women, which make my heart, bleed copiously.
As if to make an exaggerated observation, the United Nations Economic and Social Council have a sub-commission on the status of women, concerned with women’s social and political equality. This sub-commission categorically speaks about equal opportunities for education. When I came across this, I was sad because my immediate young sister was horrendously burnt for demanding what was due to her.
MODERN SOCIETY’S MAJOR TASK
It is really a pity that women at this stage are still regarded as inferior and subjected to all kinds of injustices. I think the major task we are facing in our modern society is to clearly establish the role of women in the public sphere. This effort should be coupled with the change for the better of attitudes towards women. This effort can influence people to appraise and appreciate women’s contribution in religion and public life.
The time is now when we should unsparingly transform all social structures that dehumanize women. This challenge requires the involvement of all of us without exception and without taking a softer line, to get rid of the outdated mentality and attitudes especially of perceiving women as inferior human beings.
I think the government and the Church should be the leading lights in empowering women to be able to defend and uphold their rights. This can only be a reality if it goes hand in hand with an effort to analyse and criticize processes of socialization especially those that build mental inferiority on the part of women.
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
In my own analysis, I think the dehumanising of women also finds support from local customs, myths and beliefs. For this reason, I strongly feel that social transformation demands a serious analysis of the oppressive structures. It goes without saying that we should also criticise cruel practices founded upon these structures.
The prevalent dehumanising structures should make us all stop and think. We all need to critically reflect on the mutuality and sharing of a common humanity between man and woman. Without holding back, we have to confrontationally transform all structures that perpetuate male domination.
I also feel that narratives and mythological structures that constitute patterns of meaning and continuity in religion and culture of dehumanising women should be done away with. The social expectations that are imposed by religion and culture should be revisited.
I say so because social expectations can become a heavy burden that suppresses the legitimate aspirations of women and enchains them continually to the satisfaction of the numerous demands made on the mental capacity and their health.
In a war for a just society, there is no burning challenge before us than one of recovering the neglected role of women. Especially women’s roles in the process of decision making and participation in leadership functions and positions of responsibility.
I will be failing in my reflection if I never mentioned that there is need to challenge the old-fashioned traditional expectations and the inferiority complex built in women. Why is it that we cannot see that this inferiority complex is behind women’s tendency of allowing themselves to always play the role of the oppressed? Gone are the days when women accepted social roles without questioning the “unquestioned presumptions” about their nature and traditional values.
It is high time women woke up from slumber so as to see that courage, determinism, education and hard work are the keys to success. As if this is not enough to make people think twice, women need to know that nothing can be achieved if their emancipation is completely left in the hands of men. Very few men can genuinely and prolifically push forward the actualisation of these functions if not challenged by women.
THE CHALLENGE TO THE LIBERATION OF WOMEN
The challenge however, needs cooperation between men and women. Let us challenge religious, cultural, political and economical practices that perpetuate the oppression of women. Our society will never be a just one as long as women remain oppressed.
There is also a need to conserve good values. But we should be critical in judging which values we will conserve and which values we will denounce. It is our moral duty to criticise and correct the bad values of society and not to sanctify them. For how long shall we sit down and watch women being tyrannised by evil structures?
We have had enough mental arousing and well-researched deliberations on equal rights between men and women, and what we need here and now is action. Is it not true that justice on paper or in words is half-done justice if it is not translated into actions? The favourable time to act for the liberation of women is now. Therefore, let us get up and stand up for women’s rights.
CONCLUSION
We are all challenged to contribute in the process of building a more just society by pointing out those practices in our customs that continue to oppress women. This noble undertaking should go hand in hand with a new critical analysis that will make positive customs overcome the negative elements.
Fr. Given Mutinta
Monze parish
Monze
