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Is Feminism just about advocacy for the assimilation of western female taste or advocacy for women’s rights per culture?
Whether it is “genderized” or not, as far as the issues of rampant abuse and lack of equal opportunity for women and the girl child is concerned, it is clearly a human right issue. No human being, whether male or female, should be abused or denied any opportunity based on gender or culture. That is encompassing enough for me and should be in the front pew.
But the flagrant disregard for cultural variations and even personal taste of a section of women, in the pursuit of the broad feminism agenda is plaguing the movement. It appears that the Western feminist band, who also bank roll the advocacy, are more bent on assimilating their own feminist ethos on their playing field, to the isolation of the culturalist women who also desire feminist rights without losing their culture.
The persistence with which the western feminists present the taste of the western women as the preferred standard for every woman or what should be the ideal standard for every woman, is menacing. This particular hoard of feminists I am addressing are not mindful of the fact that, there are Yoruba women in Nigeria for instance, who want and fight for all the women’s rights but want to preserve their cultural value of women taking a knee to greet elders and men. That there are Igbo women in Nigeria who want and fight for all the women’s rights but still want to teach their female children that it is a wife that should cook for her husband. That there are Hausa women who want and fight all the women’s right but still want to be inside “Kule” and be pampered by their husbands.
That there are Banyankole women in Uganda who want and fight for all the women’s rights but still want to respect their age long cultural rights to have their aunties taste the sexual agility of their husbands on their marriage eve. That there are Zulu women in Southern Africa, who want and fight for all the women’s rights, but will want to preserve their cultural pride of chasity to flaunt their breasts bare and carry a rid. That there are Muslim women who want and fight for all the women’s rights but still admire and welcome their husbands into marrying four wives as their religion allows. That there are matrilineal Meghalaya women in India, who are in control of their communities and they love and want that system to remain the way it is. That there are tribal feminists around the world who still find it romantic to get their aging husbands a new maiden as their customs allow.
The insensitivity of the Western feminists to these cultural nuances and their straight line prescription of Western standards as an across-the-counter pill for global women’s rights is something that must be challenged. Why should these hoard try to make it look like, if western styled models are not embraced, it is not feminism? Are they fighting only for women who want to become like women from the Western world or they are fighting for women who want their rights within their cultural freedom? Are they perpetrating foreign culture on other people or they are suffering to liberate women from forces limiting their progress?
Everyone who believes in humanity and love will not tolerate abuse or injustice, whether it is perpetrated against a male, female, stranger, acquaintance, family member or even a pet. The abuse and denial of women’s right is a crime and all people of goodwill must seek redress wherever it is happening. But the substitute is certainly not an imposition and assimilation of western feminist taste. That is the lie that is now shoved down our throats and methinks it is pertinent to raise these concerns openly to safeguard the mental health of many young women who are being misguided into this venture in ignorance by bitter renegades who are on vengeance missions.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
