Chapter 34 - Patriarchy, Power and Paradox: Dreaming Gender Equality and Development

Summary

“Just open the door and let the women out!”

Shahla Farid, Kabul University, 2006

“Can't you see, can't you see,” said a Bengali village woman in 2003 when asked by Brenda McSweeney if an initiative for creative manual skills for self-reliant development made a difference in the community. “Everything has changed for us! Before, I myself and many other women never left our courtyards. Now, we are here together and our men are listening to us. Can't you see?”

Responding to the formulaic and age-old patriarchal justification for the unsuitability of women for manly professions due to their “nature,” Shahla Farid, a law professor at Kabul University, Afghanistan, in a conversation with Shahla Haeri pointedly expressed the desire and desirability for mobility, and the unimpeded freedom of movement for women. Further implied in her statement, and in the story of the Bengali village women, is the multiplicity of meanings that are embedded in these poignant yet distressing narratives: it is not women's “nature” that has kept them underdeveloped, but rather the weight of political and cultural dominance and religious discrimination. Unless women are seen as “fully human” and heard by men in power, little will change. Women's energies and talents are wasted unless invested for the development of themselves, their families and societies. If given a chance, women can achieve excellence.