Don’t challenge the womenfolk!

Haughtiness is in the air. If it is so then it should have its bang on the media as well. And the fact is that a section of the Nepali media of late has become manifestly vocal against the women-power. It is this set that forcefully tries to negate the contributions made by this gender in the overall development of the society. The special class of the media, which has emerged of late, appears to be willingly tease the women folks suggesting the latter that they should not think any thing beyond the jobs related with the households. In doing so the arrogant media forgets that Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, Sirimao Bandaranaike, and Groham Brundtland were some of the brilliant women leaders who in their own right not only successfully steered their respective countries but also enhanced the image of their countries in the international forums. Instances are in large numbers wherein one could find that women leaders have performed miracles which could not have been so successfully accomplished by their male counterparts. Take the examples of the great women of our own South Asian region.

We suppose those media men who demean the status and the latent Himalayan capabilities of the women folks suffer from a sort of lowliness and it is this complex that compels them to think, see, and write in a negative manner against a gender that is no less important and talented than those who pen such irrelevant and funny stories.

The fact is that recently a set of prominent Nepali women leaders belonging to different disciplines met the King and ventilated their feelings as regards the sad affairs of the state. In the process, the women leaders apparently hinted the King that if provided an opportunity to serve the nation, the country had no dearth of women leaders who could prove their mettle and could give an efficient administration to the country.

We have reasons to believe that what the women leaders who met the King could be correct provided a chance is provided to them. However, the arrogant male society backed by male dominated media would never allow such events to happen for their own varied obvious reasons. The male political leaders though talk very high of their female counterparts while making lectures for the consumption of the public, however it comes to the crunch they totally ignore the potentials and the talents of the women leaders branding them as a creature that could not perform hard jobs that they could accomplish. Such conclusion is villainy. It is unacceptable that degrades the overall prestige and personality of the womenfolk. More so it is deplorable when such words of humiliation and derogatory notes come from the quarters of the media which is supposed not to possess gender-bias.

We in this paper have always fought for the empowerment of the womenfolk. We continue to stick to our declared stands come what may. We consider that until and unless the women folks of the nation are duly recognized and their contribution to the society and the economy is registered officially, the nation can’t achieve progress. Progress should not mean the erection of concrete structures and the likes. Real progress demands the overall upliftment of the members of the society of which the women constitute a key element. Progress should be measured not in terms of wealth but in terms of providing heath, education and shelter to its citizens.

In sum, by debasing the status of the women leaders, we in the media have committed blunders. We have to correct our stances so that in the eyes of the other gender our credibility remained intact. Now it is up to us whether to make-up what we have lost in the process or continue with the stale line, the mediaeval thinking vis-à-vis the women.

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