Once someone asked Mrs. Albert Einstein if she understood her husband’s theory of relativity. She replied, “No! I don’t understand it. But what is more important to me is that I understand Dr. Einstein”.
Actually, the woman behind the scientific genius like Einstein was what she was: creative in her own very valuable way. For her it wasn’t necessary to decipher the dimensions of scientific logic; what was more important was the urge to read the mind of a man who was more a valued life partner to her than a renowned scientist.
However, people of different idiosyncrasies have described women differently. From ballads to odes, plays to novels, she has been portrayed in various roles variably. Whether it is Bathsheba of Thomas Hardy or Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare—no holds have been barred by whimsical wordsmiths to highlight, delight, slight and blight woman!
Well, fiction apart, in factuality woman is much more than a bundle of traditional fables and overkilled clichés. She is a special creation of Almighty with an extra special purpose of life, contrary to what drowsy poets and demented feminist writers have been aligning to her.
She is the perfect workmanship of God; the true glory of Angels; the rare miracle of Earth; and the sole wonder of the World. Mankind is obliged to her: first for life itself and then for making it worth having.
As aptly said by Shayir-i-Mashriq Allama Iqbal (RA)—Wajood-i-Zan Say Hai Tasweerey Kainaat Main Rang….In fact, the woman of Allama’s thought is a paragon of nobility vindicated even by the purity of scintillating moon and sheeny constellations—Ghawah Es Ki Sharafat Pay Hain Mah-o-Parveen…
Down the history, one can trace out woman’s journey, when not long ago in the West she was tied up to a horse and carried through the streets. Those were the times when Christianity had declared her as Devil Incarnate and the Church authorities were seriously discussing if she had a soul at all. In Pre-Islamic Arabia, newborn girls were buried alive. She wasn’t any better in the East where she was burnt alive with her dead husband.
However, that was the transient dark period in the history of her existence. Since then, we claim she has been going ‘up and up on the ladder of emancipation’.
Initially, she had individual champions speaking for her. John Stuart Mill and Mary Wollstonecraft, for instance. Today she has whole organisations working for her ‘cause’ such as the Women’s Lib or the United Nations and has the entire media in her support.
In addition to much-talked international conferences every year, March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day in her honour. Indeed, it appears as an enviable privilege for the Eve of today, who is usually lamenting and clamouring for her ‘rights’. She barely misses an opportunity to present herself as the most ‘oppressed and deprived’. Women’s Day, in such a context, accidentally comes in handy for her to sell hogwash slogans and mottos of ‘rebellion’ against all. Rallies, seminars, and debates mark the day which she brags wholly as hers. And seemingly at odds with the whole world, she leaves no stone unturned to hold all and sundry responsible for her present ‘plight’.
One of the famous English poets and satirist Alexander Pope remarked in his moral essays—“Woman is at best a contradiction still.”
Does his assessment about women sound solid and relevant? It’s really damn difficult to suggest ‘woman’s nature’ in abstraction. In the contemporary world, there are many stereotype images painting women in different colours.
Once one descends into history to look for the essence of woman, it becomes a tough and uncertain exercise, for woman has always lived by her heart and not the head. One fails to understand, even today, the intricate psychology of women, especially that of the East. On one hand, she is out and out intoxicated with the concept of liberalism, and at the same time, she blames others for the deplorable fall-out of such intoxication. How ironical!
The problem with her is that she isn’t able to identify and sense the consequences of rubbing shoulders with men in almost every field. Defying natural gender differences and for mere ego, she cares damn for her unique identity.
In the pursuit of so-called emancipation and freedom, she is, in fact, seeking slavery to the world of hypocrisy. Hardly does she realise that true freedom is in refusal to lose her identity; and true solace is in recognising the poverty of her material affluence.
No doubt, today’s woman breathes and lives amidst the concept of feminism. “Don’t make coffee, make policy”—such slogans are continuously being injected into her mind. She is being bombarded with the “Hate-Man-Hate-Mankind” type of rabid feminism.
However, to sustain the aura of her individuality, and above all, the essence of her womanhood, her feminism should be of a different kind, beyond the comprehension of the high academic culture of so-called feminism.
Because she must know that she is neither competing with men nor trying to show them down. She should simply realise and value what she has been gifted with— that is, the infinite power of life-affirming love and maternity.
Her language should not be the language of narcissism and competition; it should be the language of love, patience, and generosity.
So, let her formulate good policies. Nobody contests that. But without forgetting how to prepare a cup of coffee as well!! Let life and its pure melody touch her. All along the year; and not just on the eve of 8th March.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK