Who doesn’t like to have a dream? It is an abstract phenomenon; it is sweet to have one but quite a daunting task to materialize it. Though life is not a bed of roses, we have to go a long way overcoming all sorts of hurdles and impediments. From the dawn of the human civilization both men and women worked together putting their hands on each other’s shoulder to make their dream somehow feasible and also to make the world better to live in. Nevertheless, we feel extreme agonies of pain to have the dreadful real picture of women’s treatment in our male dominating society; they are still being treated as inferior to men and their main duty is to rearing children and performing the household chores as a homemaker. But, is it the pattern of equal treatment? Obviously, in the name of equal treatment women folk of our society are being oppressed and treated as a plaything, as a lifeless toy.Womens dreams versus goals
Women are still suffering from numerous stereotypes and social prejudices, which often affect their self-esteem badly
Rana Dutta
Who doesnt like to have a dream? It is an abstract phenomenon; it is sweet to have one but quite a daunting task to materialize it. Though life is not a bed of roses, we have to go a long way overcoming all sorts of hurdles and impediments. From the dawn of the human civilization both men and women worked together putting their hands on each others shoulder to make their dream somehow feasible and also to make the world better to live in. Nevertheless, we feel extreme agonies of pain to have the dreadful real picture of womens treatment in our male dominating society; they are still being treated as inferior to men and their main duty is to rearing children and performing the household chores as a homemaker. But, is it the pattern of equal treatment? Obviously, in the name of equal treatment women folk of our society are being oppressed and treated as a plaything, as a lifeless toy.
But, at the early stage of their life, they nourish so many hopes and desires in the core of their heart which seem to disappear as they grow and become mature. In our society we find a few socially determined factors which haunt the civilization not to think women as equal to men. This cultural phenomenon has changed the thought of the society and so, the society has started discrimination between men and women and ultimately women have become a deprived part of society and their untouched desires are shattered into thousands of immature untold sad story.
In society, women are still suffering from numerous stereotypes and social prejudices, which often affect their self-esteem badly. For example, if a woman works in an office, she will not be given difficult tasks to do, because men still feel and believe that they are superior to them. Moreover, women manage to destroy all the stereotypes and do their work perfectly well and sometimes even better than their male companions. Nevertheless, they are considered as a weaker gender in all respect.
The irony of fate is that the overall development of a country absolutely depends upon the maximum utilization of her people, both men and women. But the truth is without ensuring women empowerment, the national development goal cannot be achieved. Therefore, males of our society have to realize the ultimate truth; they must be co-operative, considered, prudent, visionary thinker and be a man of great heart.
Self-decision is one of the vital elements of making their dreams come true regarding education, social and political participation, mobility, economic activities, public speaking and exercise of rights and many more factors so that they can be able to break the personal limitation and realize the fact that they have control of their lives. They dont need a guy to depend on but they have a right to choose to be with a guy. Here, women have the same fundamental rights as men - free will, make decisions of their lives, and basically take control to live their life the way they see fit. Women should be able to satisfy her daily needs on her own so that she becomes independent and earn her daily bread. That is why womens empowerment is a must.
Unfortunately, women empowerment is still a dream for many countries and parts of the world. For example, in many Asian and Islamic countries women simply cannot be empowered because of the cultural peculiarities of the nation, where men are considered to be absolutely dominant. Therefore, the conflict between the womens dreams versus harsh reality will remain as a question mark.
But, how long this will continue? Is there any timeframe to stop this nonsense? Can we hope to experience a revolution that can mitigate the huge gap between the dream and harsh reality? Many more arguments for or against come to our mind but if we cannot change our backdated thinking and philosophy and if we cannot pave the ways of treating equally both men and women, everything will be futile. So, it is time to break all the chains, throw away all blind ideas that are against establishing equality between men and women.
To win the coming global economic challenges, we need a sustainable women empowerment policy; we need a wholehearted collective effort to continue our emphatic journey towards a digital Bangladesh. Our journey is not a bed of roses: a lot of obstacles and impediments need to be overcome to pave this goal. Both men and women should work side by side showing respect to each other.
The writer is Assistant Deputy Secretary, BKMEA.
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