Women liberation is not a movement that is geared towards subduing or ruling over the men folk as it’s wrongly believed by most men and also by some women who are traditionally and religiously submerged
Women liberation should rather be viewed as a noble call for the renaissance of chivalry within the men folk of the new age of Christ and the burial of the obsolete condescension from the male folk of the era of Jehovah.
So, the movement is concerned with freeing women from oppressive social, cultural and religious structures.
Imagine the scenario below as a case study: –
“A fight ensued between a next door neighbor and his wife one fateful evening as the man got back from his workplace. He had left the toilet after defecating and had asked the wife to go and flush it for him. He was miffed that the wife did not carry out the instruction he had given her. Exasperated, the woman spoke up for the first time. ” I fetch water from the well every day and fill the drum in the toilet. Why do you send me there to clean it up for you every time you use the toilet? There is a bucket there, use it, fetch water from the drum and flush your waste. I won’t be doing it anymore.”
As the man attempted slapping her, she held his hand and he got the more infuriated. He tackled her to the ground, straddled her and started raining punches at her. Her cries of agony and the commotion attracted the neighbors. I and a few other neighbors managed to set the woman free from her husband’s stranglehold with. The woman was a pitiable sight. Her face was swollen and her clothes were torn. It was as if she had been attacked by a wild animal. Then one of the men present said, “Why didn’t you just flush the toilet and save yourself from this ugly incident?”
“She should have also helped in cleaning her husband’s butt to save the day.” I thought, not wanting to receive a punch from an irate man. I swallowed my angry retort but the baleful glare I cast at the speaker was enough to quell his macho sensibilities. I walked away from the scene feeling thoroughly disappointed and degraded.
Can any human being in his or her right frame of mind support this kind of treatment? This was the kind of extremism that took place in the medieval times between the slave masters and their slaves. And this is what the movement is trying to eliminate; Oppression.
I once read on a Lagos Bill board that ‘women are vulnerable’. This is so very true to the extent that we have become an endangered species, so to speak. Ironically, in this same land, a bill was presented to the State Assembly, praying for equity and fairness so as to strengthen the female gender but it was quashed by a horde of traditionalists. Our law makers are not unaware of the heinous crimes committed against the female gender on a daily basis; yet they turned down a bill on gender equality that was to empower women. Permit me the boldness to assert that it was an action taken without deep reflection. The equality that the female gender craves is not for women to flaunt their sexuality or to become promiscuous or disrespectful to their husbands. Equality does not place the woman above the man, but sees them as partners in progress, committed to the responsibility of fostering a human society built on valued principles of respect and understanding. Unfortunately, these values were too complicated for some of our honorable law makers to understand. Consequently, they quashed the bill. It is true that we cannot bend their hands and force them to rescind their decision on the bill for now. But we hope that one day they will understand and reconsider their position.
The female gender has been dehumanized and many crimes have been committed against her. Women are culturally Disinherited! Humiliated! and Disrespected!
The society casts them down, tramples upon them and the law turns a blind eye. It is an indubitable fact that a nation that puts down the female gender finds it hard to grow. Nigeria seems to be a test case in the misadventure of chauvinism.
Ada Chinyere Cummings