God made Eve to beautify His paradise and to bring colours in Adam’s life. The couple was sent down together on Earth to start a new life, but all the beauty and glory faded away over the time as man’s mind corrupted. Today, woman is eyed as a mere commodity and every person wants to use her as tilth, which is proven by many horrific crimes committed against women in every nook and corner of the world.
According to biblical accounts, Adam prayed to God to give him a partner with whom he could share his feelings and live a comfortable life. His request was fulfilled and Eve was created from Adam’s rib. This momentous event signifies the place of a woman in man’s life – as a better-half. Post Original Sin, they landed on Earth but at different places. Both craved for each other’s company which implies the chief importance of both genders in each other’s life and the pivotal role of woman in our society, as Adam needed Eve to step into a humanly life and start a family.
Then came the Age of Absolute Ignorance. At that time, woman was seen as an entity and a belonging. There was no respect for mothers, wives, sisters and daughters, and any woman could be easily bought or sold in the markets. As there were no rights for women, no father ever wished for a baby girl. Birth of a girl only brought shame and distress to the families of that time and many parents preferred burying their daughters alive.
The advent of Islam acted as an eye-opener for all, and people realised the noble and respectable position of woman in society. All women were awarded a prestigious status and they were looked up to with respect. With the passage of time, corruptions in ideologies led to fabrications ,which in turn deprived women of their basic rights. Almost every day, one of the news is about a wife being burnt, a girl being raped, a lady being harassed and humiliated, or a baby girl being thrown into garbage. All these incidents indicate the present position of a woman in our society.
For instance, parents marry their daughter into an educated and well-established family with a strong background in order to secure her future. They hope that their daughter will be treated respect and one day, she will earn respect and honour for herself in that family. Then one day, they receive a telephone call from a hospital which informs them that their daughter was brought in an 80 per cent burnt condition, and there are no chances of her survival. Such incidents are very much contradictory to the promises being made by the groom and his family at the time of marriage.
In Pakistan, a man died protecting his sister on the latter’s wedding reception. In India, a 23-year-old girl was brutally raped by six juveniles. Her only mistake was boarding a joyride instead of a public transport bus. These are the incidents that came into the limelight because of extensive media coverage. There are still many others that occur every day, but are not reported.
Convicting the criminals should not be practised in routine as a solution; saving lives should be the preference. Such happenings indicate the lustful intentions of people who are still living in the Age of Ignorance. They wish they could buy and sell women just like before, but as this is not possible, they end up ruining lives of women in this manner.
Burying daughters alive is not a story of the past; such cases are being reported to date. Even today, in this technologically advanced world, daughters are believed to bring ignominy and disrepute to the families. Thought to be physically weak, daughters are not given enough opportunities to avail, as compared to sons, and their role is confined to starting a family and bringing up children.
Examples like Indira Gandhi and Benzair Bhutto are quoted by many optimists, who think that women are enjoying their prestige in today’s world. But they forget mentioning the names of many talented ladies who could have been the heads of state, doctors, engineers, scientists, astronomers, lawyers and athletes, but were not given a chance to prove themselves. They were either killed before their birth or later burnt by their husbands. They were either not given education or later restricted to live under a chauvinist’s rule.
It is high time; the world should now take some action. Women activists, NGOs and many governmental organisations have till now passed many bills and acts in several countries, but to no avail. Making laws is insufficient because such incidents will continue to be recorded until these legislations are implemented. The felons should be made an example for others so that no one ever dares to commit serious crimes like harassing a woman’s dignity and honour. This is the only solution left because documentaries like ‘Saving Face’ are made only when women have been victimised; something has to be done so that women can live with honour and dignity.