The Taliban has very kindly clarified that husbands in Afghanistan may beat their wives, provided they do not break any bones.
How thoughtful.
One can almost imagine a government circular being issued. “Citizens are advised to keep domestic discipline within orthopaedic limits.”
Perhaps next they will introduce a measuring tape and a government minister with bearded male doctors under him, to ensure compliance.
We shake our heads. We say how backward. We sigh deeply into our cappuccinos and declare, “Such regressive thinking.”
And yet, when a senior Taliban minister visited our beloved India and gently suggested that women journalists should not attend his press interaction, we reacted the way we do when the WiFi goes off for five seconds. Mild irritation. Then silence.
No outrage. No thunder. No kicking him out of the country. Just polite diplomacy.
Apparently, principles now come with export quality packaging. We pretend to use them domestically, but when foreign guests arrive, we keep them in the cupboard next to the good crockery.
After all, the Taliban minister was useful. An enemy of our enemy. And geopolitics, we are told, is not about morality but about strategy.
Which is another way of saying convenience.
But convenience has a funny way of growing legs. Today it is, “Let us not offend him.” Tomorrow it becomes, “Let us not offend anyone who behaves like him.”
Slowly, the abnormal begins to look normal. You can see it happening.
And then I read about a proposed law in Gujarat that suggests adults above 21 may still need parental consultation before marriage. Consultation. What a gentle word. It sounds like a doctor’s appointment. “Please consult your parents before falling in love.”
At 21 you may vote. You may pay taxes. You may be arrested. You may contest elections. But apparently choosing your life partner requires a parental advisory board.
Somewhere a Taliban official must be nodding appreciatively. “Good, good,” he must be saying. “We are teaching them well. Soft control. Very effective.”
Before you accuse me of exaggeration, let me clarify. I am not saying India is Afghanistan. Calm down. We still have far too many wedding planners and too much Bollywood for that.
But cracks do not begin as craters. They begin as hairline fractures. And we have just been told that as long as bones are not broken, everything is fine.
Ladies, if a government anywhere believes it has the right to supervise your choice, restrict your voice, or decide who sits in a press conference, it is not being protective. It is being paternal. And paternal can quickly become patronising.
Freedom rarely disappears with a drumroll. It slips away quietly, disguised as culture, tradition, or national interest.
And one day, when you finally protest, someone will say, “Why are you making noise? Nothing has broken.”
Except perhaps the spine of a nation that once claimed it stood for equality..!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Precisely
So true!
We need to practise equality or we will be dealing with a spineless society bent upon suffocating screams of injustice and violence in a country which is believed to be democratic.
Just making glorified movies on infanticide, dowry deaths, domestic violence is futile and useless.
Freedom rarely disappears with a drumroll! So true specially in our land today. It is a shame that in many parts of India, thanks to our politicians and leaders, girls and women are still looked upon as second class citizens and treated not just disrespectfully but also as mere objects for the gratification of men.