I am not sure how many of you ( even those Indians who swear by cricket ) are aware that ICC - Womens World Cup 2009 is being played in Australia. Now, lets not blame the media for this, they only provide what we want to watch/read. After the delicious articles in the centre, I am forgiven for not even taking a look at the 'Sports', but today I did...
Well, the first page spoke of India's victory in New Zealand, file picture of Shilpa Shetty blowing the Royal trumpet, a quarter page ad & Mumbai getting the nod of hosting the inaugral and the final high fanfare matches of IPL. I flipped through and saw on the last page Lee-Hesh's news of crushing the Chinese pair in round two of Davis Cup...that is when my attention was hooked by a very small yet charismatic photograph of Rumeli Dhar - star performer of the inaugral match at the ICC- women's world cup. She picked up 3-7 ( 8 overs ) and was instrumental in packing our archrivals at any sport - Pakistan's womens cricket team with a paltry total of 57 runs in 29 overs! India, came out with a thumping victory of 10 wickets in less than 10 overs. Now, in my opinion this news was as much important if not more than Shilpa Shetty meeting Gehlot for arrangingto host IPL matches in their home state. Why are we not happier for Jhulan Goswami and her girls than we are proud for Dhoni and his boys ?
Is this state of sport in our country ? Or is it the gender divide ? It is a lot of both !
As for me, I am happy that satisfaction and love for what one is doing is keeping this optimistic state going. But, without the unanimous will of the citizens of this country we will continue to read the horrifying statistics of the weaker sex of this nation... ahem.. only on the 8th March every year.
-Shambhavi
How I wish... men and women both came from earth... and respected each other as equals
5 comments:
All in good time. But I guess the first step in that has to be from the women's side in the form that they have to stop considering themselves as the weaker sex. I won't disagree when people say that men are dogs, so it's necessary that women should think high of themselves.
Then it is necessary for them to have some male support also, I believe. And I think that would come too.
I am all for equality for women and I hope we have it sooner than later.
i guess i can admit that Indian society is still male chauvinistic, atleast in the not-so-metropolitan areas .. but feminists sometimes make it sound like they want both the "equal" parts ..
never the less i admit i had no knowledge abt the women's team winning. thanx
@ashwin : You are still guessing that Indian society is Male chauvinist, secondly almost 80% of our population lives in your not-so-metropolitan cities, villages, ghettos... where women are not treated as the cuter sex (if it was that... we wouldn't be talking ever of women social empowerment). Thirdly, please take a look at the statistics of women mortality( from just born to dowry ridden), women illiteracy, financial dependence,rapes etc. and understand the real need of change as far as women empowerment goes. Lastly & most importantly... the post had more to do with plight of women sports in the country and the love for one's work that keeps them still going in spite of low recognition... than it had to do with being a "feminist".
Nevertheless, talking about empowerment of women, the Indian nation & its people have a lot to do in that field. Here are some shameful statistic which will probably help you to understand how important it is for women to stand up for themselves and sisters of the same gender .... Illiteracy rate among women is as high as 65%( The national literacy rate is also 65% - do some quick maths here), in india a women is raped every 30 minutes (conviction rate of a mere 25%), 12 women/girls die every hour due to domestic violence, dowry deaths....., only 1% of private property in the country is on a women's name.... i can go on...
So the whole noise on feminism is not for some sort of ego boost for women like me, it is the noise to wake up the ignorant & transform apathy to action. It is the noise of the 'knell'. Extreme/psuedo feminism is not what I am advocating.I am only disregarding the habit painting a beautiful picture for the ignorant us or brushing all the flaws under the carpet and calling names to people who are ready to brace reality.
really nice post
for all those more curious about what's happening at ICC - Women's World Cup...
Team India -- beat the hosts "Australia" at the Super six !! and is the second best team of the competition so far :D
me is happy :)
( I was happy when mahi & gang was doing the magic at the first T20 world cup.... so this happiness should not be read as feminism )
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