The amount of shaming for women in the streets of Nepal and India and their culture, is appalling coming from my western roots and customs. It seems as if women are ultimately shamed no matter what they do, whether it be menstruating, giving birth, or trying to make a living. In this case, Lakshmi has a conversation with Monica, a woman also working at the happy house, about how her family reacted upon her return. “Well,’ she says with a strange cheer, ‘My father recovered from his operation’, Her smile is wide, too wide. And I am afraid of her angry happiness. ‘He needs a cane’, she says. ‘But he is still strong as a goat.’ I nod slowly, unsure what to say. ‘Look’ she says. She shrugs off her shawl, revealing arms and shoulders covered in angry purple bruises. ‘He did this with his cane.’I wince. But Monica laughs bitterly. I don’t understand.
‘I thought you said they would honor you and thank you.’ She snorts.
‘When they heard I was coming’ she says, ‘the met me outside the villiage and begged me not to come back and disgrace them’
‘Did you get to see your daughter?’ I say. Monica can not meet my eyes.
‘They told her I was dead.” (pg.193-194) The sad truth is, is that Monica’s family probably sold her to the house; knowing or not knowing, either way is just as bad, and are now shaming her because of it. Girls often are sold at young ages just like Lakshmi, forced to work in a brothel, and then shamed for it by society. It is unfair treatment. I do not want to insult another culture because that is not my intention, but they way women are treated in the hindu religion and west Asia is disheartening.
Sophia is right, all throughout the book the women of India and Nepal are being shamed. More evidence of this is when Lakshmi and her "uncle husband" get off the train. "As I walk back to the train, I pass a cluster of men yelling and shaking their fists in the air. At the center of the group, a girl my age crouches in the dirt. Her scalp has been freshly shaved- pale and fragile as a bird's egg- and hanks of her long dark hair lie in coils at her feet" (p.85). This is just another example of much the men in that part of the world love to shame their women. It's so wrong in so many ways and I can't understand why they seem to think it's ok. An old man was forcing her to stay with him and she was trying to get away, so in return he shaves off her hair so everyone can shame her with him. It seems to me that all the men care about is power. They need power to survive, that's how they thrive.
ReplyDeleteAnother way the girls at "happiness house" are being shamed (perhaps not as directly) is the money spent on them. Mumtaz sells them for such a cheap price that it is, if possible, even more demeaning to the girls. "Thirty rupees. That is the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola at Bajai Sita's store. That is what he paid for me" (146). I looked it up, and thirty rupees is the equivalent to a whopping forty-nine cents. FORTY NINE CENTS. The girls are sold for under a dollar. This kind of shame is slightly different to the forms mentioned above, but is shame no less.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your statement. I think it is cruel the way that woman are treated in other countries. And what is even worse is that the woman seem to think that that is just their place. Luckily though, there are a lot of organizations that go to help this cause. One example is the Stop Women Violence campaign run by Woman Thrive Worldwide. "Women Thrive works for transformational change to reduce, prevent, and address domestic violence, rape, bride burnings, dowry deaths and other kinds of violence and abuse against women and girls." "Violence Against Women." Women Thrive Worldwide. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.) Hopefully all of the violence and woman cruelty will go to an end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying, women are treated so terrible and different. Lakshmi obviously did not want to be at this house but of course she had to because they "own" her. It's so sad how she went from being drugged to the point of being poisoned to trying to find more men to sleep with to get more money. It's such a sad point to have to sell yourself for your family because they dont have enough money to even have enough to live. We take what we have for granted, they dont have nearly as much as we do
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