Women should stand together to win reproductive rights

Along with the above captioned article by Nirupa Serasinghe, there was another by Chandima Wijegunawardena titled “Discrimination Means We Live in a Bad Society” appearing in your issue of July 23, women being treated as second class, so to say, by men.

Where did this misconception start. It began with all religions, placing woman in a lower position than men. Take the Bible which Christians believe and follow. Genesis states ‘To the woman He said, I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing, with pains you will give birth to children and he will rule over you’.

In Islam women do not have the same privileges as men to move about. We have seen at functions, Muslim ladies are separated from men while in Buddhism it is said when women wanted to be ordained as nuns Buddha had placed eight rules/ conditions. A nun should stand and worship a monk, whatever his age or rank. Nuns should not argue with monks and accept what is said.

To me all the above, are man-made as the writers of these religious texts were men. However, there appears to be a reversal of these beliefs, when Pope Francis had recently asked men to be less macho and listen to women and not call them weak. He had also said,‘women are not just homemakers, they make the nation and the world. They have crucial roles in individual and social life. There is nothing in the world the women cannot do or achieve. However, women do need to protect themselves from abuse and exploitation. Educated decent men do give women, our mothers, sisters and wives their due place and respect and even in workplaces although there are sporadic incidents of indecency ballooned by media, both electronic and print’.

To me, it appears, women have created an inferiority complex in accusing men being superior. Haven’t men become slaves to women by keeping their beauty and feminine attributes, We have Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in the Twelfth Night. Why go so far, did not Edward V11 abdicate the throne for the hand of Willis Simpson, Prince Charles in favour of Camillia and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge in favour of Kate. Women should keep their charm, beauty and feminine qualities by which they can be equal or superior to man in all fields. Gender should not be a discrimination in view of what has been stated above. We have had the world’s first woman Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, we have a woman pilot, one of our women, climbed Everest. We have women Engineers, Lawyers, Politicians, Academics who excel in their fields.

Women should be proud and men should respect and adore them as they gave birth to Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohamed, to guide our destiny. Aren’t women worthy of worship, for the sacrifices they make to bring up children, guide them to be good citizens, attend to all domestic chores,

To end on a hilarious note and which is true “We call our language mother-tongue, because the father seldom gets to speak,”

Does that not show the superiority of women !