What is wrong if a girl goes out at night?

Originally posted by: Destiny_rose

@ maha2us

Yes the minister said a statement. Those people are supposed to be vouching for the people who voted for them and they make such statements. Don't they have some obligations to the society? We associate ministers with government and government with law. I know they'll all do things for publicity but yet I believe making such statements is not something a minister should be proud of. They rule us. this is a democracy and we expect them to be sensible at least.

I just used that quote as a reference. I've come across many people including woman say that girls should stay at home to avoid bad things. I just wanted to know what others think.

Originally posted by: Deepthought

I think your understanding of democracy is flawed. The people/masses are supreme and politicians our servants to enact our wishes, not the other way round. Politicians can be thrown out of office.

The minister quoted in this thread is not harmless or to be ignored. The minister is part of the mechanisms within society that are trying to exercise social control of in this case, particularly women. Right winger or fundamentalists of all religions, have one thing in common. (Check out the Christian Right, fundamentalist Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs etc. and their views.) They all are obsessed about controlling women's sexual behaviour and reproduction. Similtaneously these people also see women as 'temptresses' and the cause of inappropriate/illegal sexual behaviour. That's why instead of telling men to keep their genitals in their pants, they blame women for wearing inappropriate clothes! Men are not animals that cannot control their so called urges. These same idiots also forget that asceticism and denial of the flesh is a long established practice in India.

I'm shocked at the profoundly ignorant and sexist statements and analyses that emante from opinion formers like politicians and others. Check out the history of India, in fact even the Mahabharata and you'll discover that women have not always been so tightly constrained. If the Mahabharata is to be believed women in the past frequently had relations with men that took their fancy. The statues and images from India's past also make clear there wasn't always the 'Victorian' attitudes to sexuality that india nowadays calls 'Indian cultural values'.

Originally posted by: Destiny_rose

I do agree that in a democracy people are supreme and the politicians are mere instruments to ensure that people's choices are upheld, their decisions are enacted. It's a pity that theory contravenes reality. Living in India, I'd like to express my thoughts formulated on the basis of the experiences I've had. People are the masters, and representatives the servants, but the context is diametric when applied to Indian Political System. People are very efficiently manipulated by the people who govern them. In India, ministers are not easily thrown out of office.

I couldn't help but agree more with the last two paragraphs of your remark. Some of the so called Indian cultural values have been devised for the sole purpose of confining a women - spiritually, physically and intellectually. The women in the past, the women of Indian history like Panchali did enjoy greater freedom. But that being said even the mythology and our history is male dominated. Let's not forget Ahalya who was turned to stone and Sita who was abandoned by her husband even though she remained faithful to him.

What irks me the most is that both men and women are made of the same stuff, then why the discrimination?

If the minister who is supposed to upheld the Indian Constitution which vouches for Gender Equality made such a remark, what would be the mindset of common Indian man? I'm not talking about the youth, I'm specifically trying to zoom in on the middle aged and old who'd have young daughters. Those girls will have to bend heaven and hell to convince their fathers to let them out at night for a party or a movie while their brothers don't require authorization of any sort for the same. This is unfair. This is the point I sought to make.

Originally posted by: Destiny_rose

Originally posted by: Destiny_rose

If the minister who is supposed to upheld the Indian Constitution which vouches for Gender Equality made such a remark, what would be the mindset of common Indian man? I'm not talking about the youth, I'm specifically trying to zoom in on the middle aged and old who'd have young daughters. Those girls will have to bend heaven and hell to convince their fathers to let them out at night for a party or a movie while their brothers don't require authorization of any sort for the same. This is unfair. This is the point I sought to make.