Women are questioning patriarchal hegemony
The ruling by a panchayat in Western Uttar Pradesh that imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 on women seen talking on a mobile phone in public is symptomatic of a society steeped in patriarchal attitudes. Many places in India, especially in rural areas, frown upon or outrightly forbid women from talking in public to men who are unrelated to them. The panchayat diktat is an extension of such coercive “rules” and highlights the deep fear of technology among those enforcing endogamy and segregation of sexes.
They view the mobile phone as a subversive tool that has the potential to free women from the clutches of stifling patriarchy and social taboos by offering them privacy and making physical proximity redundant. The rationale of those who dictated the penalties in Madora village near Mathura was that there were too many affairs and elopements in the neighbourhood because women suddenly had access to phones. This is nothing but a violation of the rights of women and the police and lawmakers must not play down the incident for fear of invoking the displeasure of these panchayats. In the past, too, other panchayats in Western UP have pronounced similar diktats banning women from using mobile phones …read more
