A CRITIQUE OF THE FEMALE STRUGGLE
LOCAL researcher and political critic, Dikosha Dikosha, has written a 204-pages book that interrogates the position of women in society. Titled ‘Daughters of Eve’, the thoughtprovoking book, which critiques the female struggle, is grounded on issues of feminism, submission, prostitution, abortion, etc.
Why would a man write a book about women’s struggles, as if he has lived through them. Is this yet another man claiming to have the female species figured out?
Dikosha admits, “Who among us, especially men, can claim to know women? I am the first to admit that as much as I have known plenty of women in my young adult life, I still fall into the large category of men who are constantly battling with understanding women.”
Having clarified that, the author almost mockingly admits that the book will not solve, but rather compound further, and reproblematise, women’s struggles, which have been misunderstood and misconstrued since the beginning.
He fuses Marxist theories with ideologies of a conservative Christian society, and his experience as a social and political activist to dissect conflicting views, prejudices and biases that coexist.
In the first chapter, he traces the origin of a woman’s struggle to the Garden of Eve and contends the ideology that a woman, who was created by God for a man, was made subordinate to him. He raises the question, “Was Eve created as an afterthought or a helper?” He goes on to further examine submission and its place in today’s society. “In what way can submission work today, especially if we want to tie it to equality?”
The book also speaks on prostitution and abortion, encouraging readers not to ignore the dire conditions that force women into these decisions. Of course, he puts into consideration the fact that some women simply do it because they can.
“Some women, upon realising how seductive they are, decide to get into prostitution. Should people be allowed to abort simply because they are refusing to live with the consequences of their decisions?”
Other interesting themes in the book include ‘the business of bogadi’, ‘the right to wear what one wants’, and ‘the basis for polygamy’,
While the idea of a man writing about women was originally cringe-worthy and triggering, Dikosha’s open-minded approach to women’s struggles is rather refreshing. He uses a fair and intellectually-inspired approach that is objective, leaving room for the reader to decide for himself which ideology to run with. In the end, while giving us an in-depth view of women’s issues, Dikosha has successfully compounded them further.
The book is priced at P250 per copy.