Maa Durga in nine avatars in Navratri has arrived. One look into eyes of Goddess Shakti (power and strength)—while worshipping her with folded hands, with devotion in eyes and reverence in heart—evokes inner strength in a devotee. How Maa Durga fought with the demon Mahishasur, who kept changing his form during 15 days battle evokes inner strength. Today’s society is prevalent with many Mahishasurs in form of social evils. One of the social evils is fake feminism, which demeans other women, neither in favour of male or female, by serving her own interest.
Feminism is gender equality. A true feminist is one, who fights for women’s rights and advocates men’s rights at the same time.
Retired Flight Lt Gunjan Saxena—who was the first woman IAF officer to fly in a combat zone during Kargil war—says she didn’t face any discrimination due to her gender during her service with the Indian Air Force. Nevertheless, the movie, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, painted Air Force as male chauvinist instituton.
When Gunjan Saxena filed an affidavit in Delhi High Court to confirm she faced no discrimination in Air Force during her service, she proved of being an excellent example of real feminist. Unfortunately, like a fake feminist Karan Johar, producer of movie, created a fake case to tarnish the image of Air Force by adding factually incorrect scenes and dialogues to glorify the screen character of Gunjan Saxena.
Sexual abuse and harassment against women is a reality. It can be verbal, visual and physical, but then even men are harassed by women.
#MeToo movement in 2018 gave many harassed women to speak up their traumatic experiences against men in positions of power in Bollywood and in other professions too. But, then #MenToo started against false sexual harassment allegations against men. #MenToo gathered no steam. Nana Patekar got clean chit in Tanushree Dutta Sexual Harassment Case. In case of Alok Nath, the Court observed that there is a possibility that Alok Nath was being falsely accused of the crime.”
In a viral video in November 2014, Rohtak sisters, Pooja and Aarti—who were seen beating Kuldeep, Deepak and Mohit with belts inside a moving bus—were glorified as ‘Rohtak bravehearts’ by media back then. Media told the three boys had molested the girls in full public view, they were called Haryana’s shame, sexual predators and perverts. After three years of facing mental trauma and harassment, Kuldeep, Deepak and Mohit were acquitted of all charges on March 2017. What about trauma, distress and depression boys’ family faced?
Sonam Kapoor tweeted tagging the BAZAAR Arabia magazine:
For me, female empowerment is very important, especially because I’m from a side of the world where women have always been second-class citizens.”
What can be more farce than this? Bharatvarsh fought two epic wars, Ramayan and Mahabharat to protect the dignity of women, Maa Sita and Draupadi. Sanatan Dharma is world’s only religion, where female Goddesses are worshipped, where female Goddesses’ names are chanted before male God; Sita Ram, Radhey Shyam, where sons are called after their mothers’ names;Devaki Nandan, Yashoda Nandan, Kaushalya Nandan, Gandhari Nandan.
What can be more suited example of gender equality than Ardhanarishwar?
Ardhanarishwar is a combination of three words “Ardha,” “Nari,” and “Ishwara” means “half, woman and God. It means God himself is half woman and half man. The half male stands for Purusharth and half female is Prakriti.
Ardhanarishwar means male and female complement each other. Support a woman when she is assaulted by men. Help a man if he is harassed by women. A female victim deserves justice, how can Indian society allow its innocent men to suffer in silence? On this Navratri, let’s pledge to get rid of fake feminism.
