Courtesy - Sunday Island by Nan
Victory for women in films, in the courts, in daily life and most important of all over themselves; that’s what this last week showed, with March 8 commemorating International Women’s Day.
Court cases
I need to explain what I have written above. By courts I refer to two cases. MP Upeksha Swarnamali aka Pabha is applying for a divorce from her violent husband and has won offers of help from co–MPs. She intends living (alone we suppose, sans a man of her heart) in her government allocated house. Like the proverbial worm she turned at last and rose against her husband’s highhandedness and publicly accused him of domestic violence. The straw that broke the camel’s back in her case was his deliberately targeting her greatest asset – her face, and disfiguring it so she needed cosmetic surgery.
Read moreBut sorry to say I have no admiration for the woman and very little sympathy. Who knows whether she provoked the attack, cruel and unpardonable though it certainly was? Why did she bend to his word and vote UPFA for the 18th Amendment after getting elected as a UNP candidate? Was she willing to betray her party for what she would gain monetarily or otherwise, or was the turncoat act solely due to fear of her husband’s temper and striking hand? Another reason for my not lauding her is because it was only after she suffered violation of her own rights that she thought of women’s rights and spoke in Parliament.
The next court case that comes to mind is one in which two women have triumphed against a very powerful person – Justice Sarath de Abrew of the Appeal Court. He was allegedly throwing his weight around, literally - abusing his servant woman - and metaphorically by intimidating his neighbour while demarcating the boundaries of his house just as he pleased. He is disallowed from sitting on the Bench, but the punishment does not mean dismissal as it should be, he is merely confined to his chambers. For how long we immediately query; HE the President will decide.
The dignity of a woman
I said women have won battles over themselves. Not all women, not all battles. Many still remain servile to men and take whatever torture they mete out to them, both physical and emotional. But women are realizing they have innate power; there is a sisterhood and organizations like WIN to turn to; and they need not pay pooja to their men since in most cases they earn more, and most definitely work harder and do more for children and parents than do their menfolk.
A friend of mine while staying over in Anniewatte, Kandy, befriended a woman who earned her total respect. This friend has traveled all over the globe and worked here and abroad. Thus for her to be impressed by this woman meant the woman was something! The woman was seen plucking gotukola and mukunuwenna from a garden plot way down below her house, when my friend went for a morning walk. You know how houses in Kandy and its neighbourhood cling to hillsides. Well, this woman’s too was such a house and small with a smaller annex attached. My friend got talking to her and the subjects moved from vegetables, especially greens which are nutritious, to politics to children to invariably the high costs of goods. But nary a word of complaint about any of these subjects from the woman.
However she did express strong censure that he who really battled the LTTE was behind prison bars. She said she and her son’s family made do with vegetables from their land, however meager in quantity and variety without buying them at exorbitant prices. can always cook a jak curry or polos mallung," she said. Asked why the very small annex, the woman said she built it to live separately. "My daughter-in-law does not take kindly to my presence. This son is my only child, so I have to stay here. It is the house my husband and I built on a piece of land given me by my father as dowry."
My friend was invited to her home and readily accepted, enjoying a hot cup of ginger tea with jaggery. The woman was apologetic that she had nothing to offer her to eat and entreated her to stay for lunch. My friend told me that after foraging for firewood and vegetables, the woman had a good load to carry but refused help. Maybe in her 70s, she walked straight and tall, climbing several steps to be met in her compound by a scowling-with-suspicion younger woman, noticeably haughty – her daughter-in-law. But the woman explained in a friendly way who her visitor was, having noted earlier to my friend that she was sure she lived abroad – her short hair, kind of shoes she wore and manner of speaking giving her away!
These women are the backbone of the nation, not the top female executives nor the women MPs in Parliament, but the simple middle and lower class women of dignity and integrity.
A woman’s predicament
Which brings me on to a film I saw on Wednesday at the ICES which commemorated International Women’s Day with a panel discussion on Local Government and Women followed by the film The Lemon Tree. Directed by Eran Riklis. It was supported by both Israelis and Palestinians as "a shiningly courageous and honest step forward for both peoples." It won the award for best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. I am haunted by images seen and the chief protagonist’s face, haunted in a positive and encouraging way, with the message constantly in mind that women are underdogs in all societies, whether the fact is accepted, out in the open or camouflaged, hotly contested and denied or conveniently ignored.
Salma Zidane, a Palestinian widow living in the lemon grove bequeathed by her father and now managing it with his helper who still works with her, old though he be, has the Israeli Minister of Defense moving into his new house just opposite her home and grove on the green line border between Israel and the West Bank. True to such a situation, (experienced so very much by us in this country even though now at peace), security swarm the place and express the fear that the lemon grove could be a hideout and launching pad of attack on the minister’s house and person.
Thus Salma’s travails in saving her trees, which to her and her helper are living beings, almost people. The minister is merciless, but his sensitive wife, disillusioned by discerning other flaws in her husband, feels for the widow living opposite their opulent mansion. A young lawyer, Ziad Daud, fired by Salma’s determination to save her trees agrees to fight her case, right up to Israel’s Supreme Court. Outcomes: 75 percent of the trees are ordered to be pruned. Salma comes alive with Daud finding her attractive and sleeping with her, and the Israeli minister’s wife leaves her husband, after making it very clear her sympathies are with the hapless widow tending her lemon trees and collecting the luscious fruit even when the grove is barbed wired and made out of bounds to her.
The principal theme is the strength of women, their persistence in fighting for the right, and being resigned to loss mostly, but tasting victory too; also, the expressed or implicit strength of sisterhood and a woman empathizing with another. Salma loses her case though concessions are made, which case however garners international notice so much so that the minister moans that lemons have defeated him! Loss is also because Daud marries a minister’s daughter. Salma is grandmother plus mother of a son working in the US. She is past her middle years, gaunt through hard work and bare living, but outstandingly beautiful. Of course the lawyer goes finally for youth, prestige and probably beauty. But his departure and marriage cannot be taken as betrayal of Salma. Two lonely people came together for comfort and in admiration of each other. Nuanced was the perception that she is grateful she had that spell of being loved and wanted, brief though it was.
There are unsung Salmas among our women too. And people and organizations ready to help them. Conclusion: International Women’s Day if it calls for a reckoning of women’s situation in our country would certainly be told there is much more to be done for equality and non discrimination and violation of rights, but much has been achieved. For that, thanks - to the women themselves
