Sucheta Pyakurel's False Claim To Women's Rights

Chitralekha

The Madhesi are by and large a sexist people. Nepal is a sexist country. South Asia is an astoundingly sexist part of the world. America is a sexist country. Then there is a matter of degree. Nepal is much more sexist than America, South Asia is. Gender is today in South Asia where race was in the US South half a century ago.

Sucheta Pyakurel has never gone on record to make such clear statements. She might be a woman, but her political consciounsness leaves much to be desired for. She is a woman who is not too aware of women's rights.

Sucheta Pyakurel is a Bahun and she grabs that identity like there were no tomorrow. Sucheta Pyakurel is a Pahadi, and she grabs that identity like there were no tomorrow.

To the not so discerning eye, it might look like she is speaking up for women's rights below, but she is not. She is speaking Pahadi Bahun prejudice to earn kudos from prejudiced Pahadi Bahun men. Way to go, Sucheta. That is what she wants to hear. Her positions stated below are not well thought out, merely Pavlovian.

Her total hostility to the Madhesi Movement tells me she is out to deny the humanity not just of the Madhesi men but also of the Madhesi women. If she cared for the rights of the Madhesi women, she would care for their political rights also as a Madhesi, but she does not.

The Madhesi made the April Revolution possible. The April Revolution made the Madhesi Movement possible. Both will make it possible for the women and the Dalit, in the Pahad as well as the Terai, to gain rights they never had before. The Madhesi Movement is a progression to the ultimate emancipation of the Madhesi women, the Madhesi Dalits.

Or why wait? We can do it now.

I am not too excited about I have black friends so I am not racist train of thought. Let's talk policy.

I want one third of all constituencies to be reserved for women candidates, and two thirds of those for the Dalit, Madhesi and Janajati women. Either Sucheta Pyakurel is for this proposal or she is against it. If she is for it, either she will campaign for it, or she will not. If she will campaign for it, she will not hesitate to start with the Pahadi Bahuns in her immediate social circles. Will she do that? Will she not? I want to know.

This play of words on her part does not fool me. Why? Because I have no intention whatsoever to defend the sexism in the Madhesh. Also because I can tell the clear difference between someone fighting for women's rights, and someone merely expressing Pahadi Bahun prejudice. And also because I have clear, well thought out policy prescriptions for women's rights in the Nepali context.

• (II)The Second Pillar : Sexual Equality
• The Laws That Push The Women Down
• The Political Battles

Sucheta Pyakurel is no different from racist white women. It makes no sense to cut corners to racist white women just because we live in a sexist world. When a racist white woman is being racist, she is being racist. She is not fighting for women's rights, either her own, or that of the women in the "Third World."

Preeti Koirala And Mainstream Pahadi Prejudice
Proportional Representation Might Work With DaMaJa Reservations
Madhesi Movement Invites The Dalit, The Janajati, The Mahila

----- Original Message -----
From: Ram Sah
To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 1:35 PM
Subject: Re: [ND] Re: On regional autonomy and New Nepal

Dear Sucheta Ji:

I am amazed to see how some of us have adopted clever ways of avoiding a question by raising more questions that may or may not related to real issue. Is it not the game (internal inequities, Hindu-Muslim, or even indentured servitude within India) British were playing to Justify their colonization of India? Is it not the same game Apartied South Africa was using to justify their existence of power? Let me play the game your way:

1.After looking at the two videos I posted do you think that women in Nepal (compared to men) are treated by the police/government the same way Madheshi were treated in Nepalganj?

2. Let me take one more step: In a hypothetical men vs. women conflict in Nepal, in your view, would police/government allow men to protect other men and burn women?

3. A colonized society removes the colonizers. For example India and USA removed British colonial power to regain their sovereignty. Should the current power holders of Nepal who migrated from India less than two hundred years ago and colonized Madhesh and Pahad be removed from Nepal?. If Madheshi can not make the power holders/colonizers think fairly should they not think of removing them (Please do understand that this only theoretical question, I do not want disintegration of Nepal).

With best regards,
Ram Sah

----- Original Message -----
From: Sucheta Pyakuryal
To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 8:09 AM
Subject: [ND] Re: On regional autonomy and New Nepal

Ram Sahji,

Namaste,

Of course Dr. Bohara will answer you, but your second question caught my eye. I have at least a dozen of counter questions for your second question so please bear with me, I apologize in advance if I sound too quizzical.

So, if I were to ask you as a female: why should women live with/amongst men when they have been oppressed, denied basic rights, burnt alive, burnt with acid, beaten and battered, given a lower socio-economic and political status, what would you say? Do we really have a choice of who we are to live with, especially in today's world? Why do dalits take the age-old baseless religio-cultural subjugation, what do we call that..a paternalistic-colonization or religious colonization? After the Indian partition, did Pakistan become this utopia for equality and of muslium-brotherhood? and what about Bangladesh, why is violent bandhs, hartals and killings still rife in "golden Bangladesh"? So what proof do we have that terai would be better off if it disintegrates?( or as you put it, "choose not to live' with pahades. )

Lets look at the flip-side of this issue across the border, the Nepalese are called "bahadurs", "Mathoo", "chinky" and "gurkha", isn't this discrimination?...so are Darjeeling, Sikkim, Dehradoon, Mussoorie colonies of the Indian gvernment too?( Unlike Nepal, India has been trudging alone the path of democracy for more than half a century now.)

AND about retribution: would you as a male hindu ( I am assuming you are, pardon me if you are not) be ready to profoundly apologize to women and dalits of your community for "colonizing" them and "subjugating" them for time eternal? what will be the nature of your penitence?

Sahji, as a woman who would want to assert her right(s), I would immediately be termed 'shrill" if I were to talk about retributions and repentance, but here I see majority of the members are taking your assertions quite well... What if I were to say that comparatively, you as a madhesi have more leeway of asserting your right than me as a woman?

AND a final question to you :SO are we for procedural justice or substantive justice?

Forgive me for my rather "loud" piece here, tried hard to hold back but failed....my apologies !!

Regards, :-)

Sucheta

Related articles by Zemanta

• Conservatives for Racism, Sexism, and Prudery (brinklindsey.com)
• Sexism China Style. Not A Good Thing. (chinalawblog.com)
• Downturn costs billions in aid to world's poor (msnbc.msn.com)