http://www.arabtimesonline.com/kuwaitnews/faqdetails.asp?faid=1063&faqid=9
Women can only win the day with men's support
True democracy means making choices that are good for the individual and
his society. Before the Greek philosophers indulged in political thoughts, that
gave birth to the notion of democracy, Old Stone Age people lived in equitable
life, a true democracy in which both men and women shared every decision
affecting the well-being of their community. A wealth of evidence discovered
from the Neolithic town of Catal Huyuk in Turkey reveals a very well-planned
and organized society, that cultivated the land and grazed animals. Their
agricultural technology, wall paintings, metal art and sculptures show no sign
of warfare, no slavery, nor social inequality; men and women worked in
partnership; the needy were provided from the public store and the garden of
the goddess. Other Neolithic cultures in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe
and the Minoa civilization were highly advanced societies in which no ranking
predominated.
The harmonious interrelation of men and women changed abruptly when
conquering nomad hunters, worshippers of a father god conquered the settlers
and began changing their social structure, making ranking the predominant
factor. Men projected their self-image on an authoritarian, cruel god and women
became male property to be safeguarded and bartered. The shift from societies
based on partnership to a society based on class structure gave birth to all
the social illnesses that have been plaguing humanity ever since; from
inequalities, to social injustice, to power greed, to war, revolution, slavery
and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Nature also suffered from
the abusive behaviour of men exploiting natural resources in their belief that
nature had been created to serve them.
Philosopher
Around the sixth century BC, philosophers Thales, Anaximander and
Heraclitus in Grece, Lao-tse and Confucius in China, the Vedist Hindu and
Gautama in India, and Zoroaster in Persia all saw Nature striving to create a
balance: changing, re-establishing order and harmony from imbalance and discord
like in human affairs. Nature is orderly but not perfect. Perfection would mean
the end of creation, the end of evolution. Humans are not perfect, hence they
are always striving to reach a certain order in their relation to the world and
to their kind. The simpler the community and the closer to nature the more
harmoniously balanced it seems to be. In more sophisticated societies, in which
property and greed enter the human equation, harmony can still be maintained if
equity is maintained.
The Greeks' experiment was a democracy in a man's world, in which women
were excluded from taking part in the political life of the nation. The
Athenians failed in their experiment for squabbles continued - by citizens
seeking ways of gaining power and others taking advantage of the confusion to
try to bring back the dictators. Seeing what was going on around him, the
playwright Aristophanes produced "Lisistrata" and "Women in Parliament",
suggesting that women could do a better job in solving social problems of
governments and wars than men. Socrates seeing people in the assembly throwing
their ideas from anything that came to their mind, like builders trying to make
a building without a plan and with any material at hand, criticized them, till
his criticism eventually led him to his trial and execution. 2,500 years have
passed since then, but obviously our modern version of democracy is not better
off. What we see is squabbles for power, few indeed are those who have the
interest of their country at heart!
Since 1963 in Kuwait, when the first parliament was elected, to the
present day, men representing the people have done nothing positive to gladden
their hearts. Indeed from 1963 till now it has been a series of disappointments
and a colossal waste of resources, time and opportunities. Not only has Kuwait,
which used to be at the vanguard of the Gulf countries in early Sixties, has
reached the bottom line in respect to the others, the inception of the "wasta",
which apparently began with the inception of the parliament, has caused
widespread injustice and corruption that needs a miracle of spring-cleaning to
get rid of. When Aristophanes, tired of the squabbles and tension around him,
suggested in his plays that women should run the parliament, he had a good
point in his suggestion, for women are the powerhouse of the nation. By women I
mean not the feminine spoiled types of the species, but the real women with a
brain to think and the power and determination to act. Men are ready for
action, women think before acting: they think how to put the food on the table,
how to raise and educate their children, how to make ends meet and how to plan
for the future by minimizing waste and making good use of every chance to
enhance the wellbeing of their family.
Economy means house-keeping. Who better than a woman knows how to keep
her house in order? An orderly household is based on a balanced economy of
equal partners. The concentration of wealth in a few hands will inevitably
result in collapse of the system. From the time the nomad hunters conquered the
peaceful orderly communities of settlers, they disrupted the harmonious
male-female partnership and established a man's world. How often do we hear the
word "mankind", as referring to the whole human species. Fighting for
supremacy, men have invented technologies that while enhancing their power,
have brought humanity to the edge of total destruction. At the same time
technology did free women from the shackles of subjugation, enabling them to
infiltrate every male domain, which had been exclusive to men. There are women
in every field and profession, in science and technology, there are even women
in mines and in the army. But when it comes to parliament women are shunned.
Why? Are men so afraid of women power?
Support
Unfortunately we are living in a man's world and only with men's support
will women win the day. Men, not the women, will help women move ahead and make
their stand in society. Only men who believe in the power of women will respect
their stand and give them a chance. In Kuwait there are men who are
broad-minded and self-assured enough to believe that women can truly make a
change if given a chance to enter the parliament. When Italy emerged from the
great World War II, shaken and demoralized, in 1947 in the first parliament
that formed 27 women were elected. Some of them had been fighting with the
resistance against the Germans and the Fascist regime till their country was
free. Kuwaiti women too fought in the resistance against the Iraqi invaders,
scores of them suffered martyrdom under hideous torture. What more must they do
to gain a voice in parliament and do something for their country?
Italy in the aftermath of the great war was at the bedrock of its economy
out with a man, a patriot in power and women in parliament supporting his
endeavors, Italy not only regained its dignity in the world, but within a short
time it emerged from the ashes of war, into one of the ten great powers. Kuwait
is going through a difficult phase in which women power can help. The greatest
challenge Kuwait is facing is a spring-cleaning in the system to clear away the
wasta and the corruption it is causing. Incidentally is it the spring-cleaning
that many men in the parliament are afraid of! The democracy practiced by the
Athenians effectively weakened their brilliant civilization, the same thing has
been happening to Kuwait, which was stronger and healthier before the one-sided
parliament came into power.
By Lidia Qattan
Kuwaiti artist, writer
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