The book discussion group at the Tiffin-Seneca Public library recently read Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee. This book told of an Indian woman’s life in India, and also about her life as an immigrant to this country. Thus we learned about Indian customs and life and also how our own country looks through the eyes of young Indian woman. We were very fortunate to have present in the group, Jo Garlapati, who aided us in understanding Indian life and religious ideas.
For instance, Mrs. Garlapati explained the Indian god Kali to the book group. This god is often presented as a warlike god with fearsome powers but it also has a feminine side. The heroine, Jasmine, called on the strength of Kali when she needed to defend her life.
The burden of a female child was brought out clearly in the book. Speaking of the independent-minded Jasmine who is l3, the mother-in-law says to her son, “You’re going to wear out your sandals getting rid of this one.” Jo Garlapati spoke to this issue also, saying this situation was more often true in her mother’s generation.
The author speaks of the Wheel of Reincarnation in these terms: “God lends us a body, gives an assignment and sends us down. When we get the job done, the God calls us home again for the next assignment.
At one point, Jasmine speaks of her impression of American life. “In America nothing lasts … agreements are annulled. Nothing is forever.” There is much action in the book. Perhaps some of our readers would enjoy it.
Women’s life is changing rapidly in another country, Japan. Now, unlike their mothers, 40% of married women have chosen to work after marriage. However, right after World War II, Japan’s percentage of working women was one of the highest in the world as women worked shoulder to shoulder with the men. As the economy improved in the 1960s, many stayed home.
According to professor Simiko Iwao, of Tokyo’s Keio University and the author of “The Japanese Woman”, Japanese women see independence and equality differently from American women. Japanese see equality as a balance of responsibility, advantage and opportunity in the long run. Husbands might enjoy some advantages in a full-time job, but wives have greater freedom at home. If the pluses of both situations balance out, they’re seen as equal. In the past, a wife’s control of the household finances gave her clout at home, and many continue to enjoy staying at home. Because women are not expected to stay at a firm, as men may be, women have the freedom to quit jobs and find new ones they prefer.
In China, thousands of years of Confucian thought and a feudal system of rule continue to cast a shadow over society. Although in l949 the Communist government guaranteed equality between the sexes, few women knew their rights or how to enforce them. Now a legal system is developing that allows women to protect their rights.
Before the Communists came to power, Confucian dictates decreed that a woman must be a loyal servant of her parents, her husband and her in-laws. They were locked into a social prison that few escaped.
Now Chinese women have been freed from many restrictions, but the party has also imposed a “one-child policy” that severely limits reproductive rights. This policy combined with advances in medical technology has created a new gender inequality. Single men far outnumber single women, and the gap is growing.
Recent restrictions have been imposed on women by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, forcing them back into their homes and under the veil. This has strengthened the impression that in Arab countries, women are facing a backlash against exercising rights that women in other countries enjoy. In an article in the Christian Science Monitor, Sarah Gauch gives the example of a young woman in Cairo. She gave birth to a third daughter recently, and her husband divorced her for not having a boy. Today she and her children live in a cramped l6 by l6 foot apartment with her mother, two sisters and brother, while she fights the courts for financial assistance from her husband.
In Iran, the growing Islamic fundamentalism- manifested by stricter adherence to dress codes – has moved some scholars and activists to challenge the male dominated interpretation of the Koran. According to one of them, “Allah spoke of the two sexes in terms of total equality as believers.”
They have been responsible for some changes. In 1991, divorced women in Iran gained the right to seek back wages from their husbands for housework performed during marriage. It also has a four-month compulsory maternity leave and an equal-opportunity labor law. In December, four women lawyers became judges in family courts.
According to the Population Reference Bureau, women world wide continue to make strides in important ways: Life expectancy has risen from 49 to 68 years since the 1950s. The literacy rate has risen from 54% to 64% since the 1970s. In developing nations women’s rate still falls below the male literacy rate at 78%.
As our world becomes more and more affected by events in other countries, it is increasingly important for us to understand the lives of their people through contact with Americans who are foreign-born and by reading about the lives of those who live in other countries.
– Mary