A recent meme on Facebook caught my eye the other day, a real conversation between a man and his boss in a multinational company.
Boss: What does your wife do?
Man: Nothing.
Boss: Really? Who cooks? Who cleans? Who looks after your children? Who feeds you?
Man: mmm
Boss: tell me in your honest opinion what do you think women do in general?
Man: Nothing
Boss: What am I?
Man: A Woman.
This small message packs a big punch. Women are more often than not considered to be an inferior species. Not up to par at home or at work, acknowledgment comes few and far in between. Not many people stop to think about what women actually contribute to in society or how the juggle tasks to keep things in balance. It’s also sad to see in a day and ages like this, a few men still cling to their prehistoric notions on the fairer sex.
We saw women take up arms in our struggle for independence and today we see a woman leading our county. The local parliament holds 50 seats for women specially. Sheikh Hasina is the only Islamic female leader in the entire Organization of Islamic Cooperation members. She has volleyed for education for the girls from the very beginning. The right education can make a girl independent both physically and emotionally. It can give her the courage to raise her voice and demand her rights. When educated a woman is enabled to pass on the light to her future generations. Since this step has been taken and with the village drives done by NGOs, the rate of child marriage has significantly dropped by 35%. The Domestic Violence Prevention and protection Act passed in 2000 ensure women their protection at home. How much these precautions and measures are followed through on is dubious but it is assuring to see that Bangladesh is on its way to achieving an actual goal. Health care and proper medical services are on the rise for women, village doctors are a thing of the past, these days hospitals or even mobile hospitals are posted all over the county ensure prompt medical advice and service.
In connection to this in the rural areas women are encouraged to apply for micro loans in order to open or further a business or dream that can support her and her family. It has been reported that almost 60% of the farmers these days are women. Imagine that leap from behind the ‘pardah’ to business women. The emergence of these micro loans has allowed women to go forward socially and economically and as a result the socio-economical state of the country rises as a whole.
A report conducted by ILO has stated that there has been a record breaking entry of women in the workplace in Bangladesh. In 2013 the Labor Law was amended to include women’s rights and safety at work. Bangladesh leads the world in the export of readymade garments- and who do you think is the predominant sex at these garment factories- that’s right, Women! These women pull more than half the workload of an entire factory yet are very rarely given a chance at the top privy positions
These are the positive aspects now it all depends on how the people wish to go forward. It seems ingrained in the minds of people, particularly the more narrow minded, religious mindsets who believe that women can do nothing and nothing can be done by them. They are inept. No one goes around blaming a bad mindset rather they blame the victim of the mindset. So we must as a nation moved past these hindrances and look forward to how to further the empowering of women and changing of bias views. So in the immortal words of Charles Dickens “the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me” the way.