Status: The Second Sex

By Prakriti KC

Women in Print’ is a compilation of various pieces published as reports, news, investigative write-up and so on. Divided in ten different parts, each except the first one has a brief analytical section as a prelude. ‘The Situation of Women in Nepal’, ‘Physiological Development and Women’s Health’, ‘Social Relationship and Problems’, ‘Women and Class’, ‘Violence Against Women’, ‘Women and Law’, ‘Women and Politics’, ‘Women and Occupation’, ‘Women and Media’ and ‘Development and Empowerment’ are the ten parts that make up the whole "Women in Print". The compilation as whole has attempted to present an all- encompassing situation of women in Nepal and each segment analyzes the socio-cultural factors that have inhibited women’s emancipation. The readers should not see each segment as a separate piece but as part of the whole.

While reading 'Women in Print' I was reminded of "The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir, which was published in 1908. Its central thesis was that women, in relation to men have almost always been forced to occupy a secondary place in the world. The connection here is the same line of arguments. The first line of Preface in 'Women in Print' reads "The relation between men and women has always been against women’s welfare throughout the world". Therefore be it West or East, be it some other century or this new millennium, women all over have remained the inferior ‘second sex’. Their position is comparable in many respects to that of ethnic minorities despite the fact that women constitute half of the human race.

'Women in Print' goes on to analyze the male centric social traditions that have been limiting the achievement of women in the intellectual and professional fields. The book draws examples mainly from the field of journalism. The insignificant number of women in the administrative and editorial sector of journalism is a striking indication of existing social injustice and lack of gender sensitivity. It is essential to draw attention of all those who are taking a formal training of journalism towards the widespread gender inequalities that has crippled our society.

The book has defied the tradition quite common in print media, that of gathering reports and highlighting tentative statistics so as to create sensation and/or despair. For instance nowadays one finds plethora of articles spotlighting the tentative statistics of HIV/AIDS and domestic violence, sexual abuse etc. However, the articles collected in this book are, by and large, sensitive analyses of qualitative aspects of women’s issues. For example there are accounts even on the topics like ‘Women Sexuality’ and ‘Myth of Menstruation’ that are usually not addressed in our society. 'Women in Print' has very boldly attempted to understand the correlation between our socio/cultural milieu and the obstacles in women emancipation. However, it has completely ignored the emotional and mental (psychological) aspects of womanhood. Even the sections on women’s health and violence against women have failed to include reports on mental health of women. This is a clear example of dearth of materials on mental health of Nepalese women.

Although the purpose of the book is to sensitize those in journalism on women’s issues, what I would say is that the publication of this book itself marks the beginning of this sensitization process. At least those who are doing journalism have realized that this is what is lacking in this area. People in other professions could use this book as well, as a guidebook so as to relate and draw a map of what is really going on in their respective field as far as gender sensitivity is concerned. This book could well serve the purpose of ‘conscious raising’ among people of various profession. Finally, this book is a success in itself as it definitely sparks optimism in all those who have been waiting, for a long time an enriching literature on gender analysis in Nepal.

(Prakriti KC is associated with Himal Association.)

How Democratic is Nepal?

By Mahendra Lawoti

The Freedom House, a broad-based US agency that conducts annual survey of freedom around the world, ranks Nepal as only Partly-Free for 1998/1999 in its latest publication, as it has ranked Nepal since 1993-1994. For a country and its leaders who love to boast Nepal as democratic, it indicates serious shortcomings and lapses. Further, the country report says that the trend for freedom in Nepal is deteriorating.

The Freedom House ranks countries into 3 categories of Free, Partly-Free and Not-Free. It surveys political rights and civil liberties as two dimensions of freedom/democracy.

The Freedom House defines political rights as rights that "enable people to participate freely in the political process, which is the system by which the polity chooses authoritative policy makers and attempts to make binding decisions affecting the national, regional, or local community". It defines civil liberties as "freedoms to develop views, institutions, and personal autonomy apart from the state."

The survey assigns countries 1 to 7 in both political rights and civil liberties dimensions, 1 being the most free and 7 being the least free, finally adding up the scores to arrive at the Freedom Index. Generally countries with 2-5 scores are categorized as Free, countries with 6-10 as Partly-Free and countries with 11-14 as Not-Free. However in some marginal cases, as in the scores of 6 and 10, countries with the same score have sometimes been categorized differently, depending upon conditions within specific country. For instance Mali and Argentina, with a score of 6 are defined as Free, whereas Bangladesh is categorized as Partly-Free.

Comparative Ratings of Neighbors and Other Emerging Democracies

How do Nepal’s neighbors fare in the rating? Among the SAARC nations, India is the only country that is labeled Free. Its rating is 5. Bangladesh (6), Pakistan (9), Sri Lanka (7) and Nepal (7) are in the Partly-Free category. Maldives (11) and Bhutan (13) are the Not-Free SAARC countries. China (13) is also Not-Free. This reveals that, except India, all countries in the region are Not-Free or only Part-Free. This might raise the question as to whether new democracies ever are labeled Free and whether country’s economic conditions pull the rank down. The answer is not necessarily so. Among the more recent democracies (those which have democratized from 1978 to 1995) more than 25 countries are labeled Free. Likewise developing countries like Mali, Malawi, Guyana, and Namibia are also labeled as Free. Hence to be Free is not the sole prerogative of developed nations or long established democracies or countries of the West.

How has Nepal performed in the freedom rating historically? Since 1972-73, when the ratings began, Nepal was labeled Not-Free till 1978-79. From 1979-1980 Nepal has been categorized as Partly-Free, except for 1991-1993 when it was ranked as Free, till now. The 1979-1980 change came due to the national referendum and subsequent political reforms.

Problems in Nepal
Political marginalization of low caste Hindus and ethnic groups, wide spread corruption, election related violence, Human Rights abuses by the government and the Maoist cadres, discrimination against women, child labor and women and girl trafficking to India are cited as some causes for Nepal’s low performance in the Freedom Index. Constitutional restrictions on free expression in broadly defined areas such as national security and communal discord, and declaration of Nepal as a Hindu Kingdom are other problems related to civil liberty.

The report does not discuss, among other issues, the extreme disparities that exist between the urban and rural areas and inequality in resource distribution. For example, the average life expectancy in Mugu is only 37 years whereas average life expectancy in Kathmandu is 71 years. Nor does it discuss the increasing role of money and muscle in the electoral process because of which the parties conspire at all cost to remain in power to conduct the elections. Analysis of past parliamentary and local elections makes it clear that whichever party controlled the government machinery got favorable results. The inability of GP Koirala government to get a majority for the Nepali Congress in the 1994 mid-term poll is an exception that can be explained by high internal squabble within NC.

Implications for Nepal
The categorization of Nepal as only a Partly-Free country shows serious shortcomings in its democracy. Freedom of expression is the only tangible democratic value enjoyed by many after the restoration of democracy in 1990. Otherwise only the rich and the powerful have enjoyed the country’s freedom. Even elements which are responsible for maintaining Nepal’s current ranking, such as regular elections, is turning into farce as electioneering is increasingly becoming the art and science of using money and violence, if possible with state’s cooperation, to produce favorable results. It is high time political leaders and informed citizens seriously think about identifying weaknesses in the current system for reforming it to consolidate democracy.

What sorts of reforms are warranted to make the country more democratic? Clearly political leaders and parties should develop more democratic culture. The tendency of top political leaders to concentrate power through control of political party with the aid of undemocratic party constitutions and institutions is clearly developing undemocratic culture among party leadership, cadres and the system. Second, and more important in the long run, is to carry out institutional and structural reforms in the political institutions to include marginal groups like women, ethnic groups, Teraiwasis, and dalits in the mainstream political process. Such reforms should take into account class and urban-rural disparities as well. Decentralization, not in the token sense as it has been carried out in the past, may be effective to achieve some of the objectives since it takes power closer to the people. Clearly the need is to take away power from the all-powerful central state. Thirdly, accountability, within the state apparatus and civil society, is an essential step for restoring belief and trust in democracy. Otherwise democracy becomes the raj of the power elite, as the last 10 years or so has shown.

(Mahendra Lawoti is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.)

Raising Her Fist

By Sanjaya Serchan

The post-1990 democratic discourse cannot perhaps be neatly compartmentalized, but still two  strands stand out distinctly. The two strands are the ethnic movement and the women’s movement, which have respectively raised their revolt against, to borrow Derridan terminology, casto-centric and phallo-centric attitudes. Both these attitudes, incidentally, have their roots in Brahminical thinking and are, by definition, acquired at birth.

Among the fists raised in protest against phallo-centrism can be taken Sita Pandey’s recent book. The book titled Yaun ra Anubhuti (Sex and Experiences) is a collection of articles published in various Nepali newspapers and magazines. The articles attempt to record the author’s experiences as a woman and to provide the author’s perspective about these experiences. There are experiences in the book from the author’s childhood to her present professional life. From an incident which reminds one of Freud’s ‘penis envy’ to another where a girl tries to fulfill her sexual desire in a lesbian relationship with her younger sister, from animal sex to the physical changes that accompany growing up, all these find mention in the book. The book describes a woman’s role in the society as a child, a young girl and an unmarried woman, a wife, a mother and a professional. The book shows how these various roles are shaped and coloured by phallo-centric attitudes.

In the male-dominated discourse it is "the man who defines the human and not the woman." Simone de Beauvoir, in her book The Second Sex (1949), pointed out that a woman has to define herself by saying ‘I am a woman.’ Women are bound into a lop-sided relationship with man: Man is the One, Woman the Other. De Beauvoir writes: "Legislators, priests, philosophers, writers and scientists have striven to show that the subordinate position of woman is willed in heaven and advantageous on earth." A female child, in a patriarchal society, grows up thinking of herself as inferior to males. A woman has to sublimate her desires. Indeed, she is considered well behaved if she does not express herself at home, in the family, in the society. The man, on the other hand, not only makes the rules but often breaks them with impunity. As the Nepali saying goes, a man can have relationships with a thousand women. The book raises its voice against this male-dominated discourse. It throws a stone, several stones in fact, in the staid, established waters. Describing sex as floodwater or landslide that cannot be ‘dammed’, the book hints at men’s little understanding of women’s desires and, consequently, the difficulty they have in satisfying women. The author mocks the treatment by men of women as objects by saying that if she were financially capable she would marry a dozen husbands, whom she would rotate at her pleasure. The author questions the patriarchal practice of giving children their father’s surname. A mother is a biological fact, while the father remains a matter of faith. The author argues that since a husband is not necessary to have children and a man is enough, children should bear their mother’s surname. In a society where women are abused for being very attractive as well as for being not attractive enough, the book and its views are bound to be misread, misunderstood, misrepresented, as well as maligned. At one level the author herself might be the recipient of slights and insults, from those who know her personally and also from those who do not (her photograph is on the back cover of the book). The phrase that might be used for her is a "cheap woman," to put it mildly. This is indirectly hinted at in the book when it is written that the author is regarded as someone with "lots of experiences." In this context, it should be considered an act of courage on the part of the author to have come out and spoken on behalf of all Nepalese women.

At another level the author’s views might be deliberately misconstrued. When the author questions the male tendency of always remaining on top, some critics might pounce on her and say she is speaking against evolutionary destiny. Women are of course knowledgeable enough to see that the man’s position during the sexual act is an evolutionary necessity. What women in general, and the author in particular, are demanding is women’s right to equal opportunity, regard and respect vis-a-vis men in all spheres of life. And if sex and sexual liberation figure prominently in this scheme of things, it is because sex forms a bed-rock in man-woman relations. As long as women are regarded as ‘corrupt’ for having and expressing sexual desires and men ‘capable’ and ‘virile’ for having and expressing them, there can be no real equality between the sexes.

The book, however, would have had a greater impact if all its articles had been confined to women and her role (sexual and otherwise) in the society. This is also possibly the reader’s expectation after reading the book title and also the blurbs on the back cover. In the book’s collection of random thoughts there are many articles that have nothing to do with women and her role but are about, for example, poverty, places and events like the SAF Games. Also, the book loses sight of its stated objectives of focusing in the first part on experiences and in the second on opinions and ideas. There is also the repetition of two items (sauna bath and card playing) in two different articles each.

Yet the book, despite shortcomings, manages to provoke. It is a provocative book, which some might not be willing to swallow, let alone chew and digest. The author has written that the book’s objective is to raise the morale of Nepali women and to help them in uniting against oppression and injustice. One thing which can be said in this regard is that Nepali women fifty or hundred years hence will have to be thankful to people like Sita Pandey. This is perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to the author.

(Sanjaya Serchan is a student of sociology.)

An Erratic Sentiment

By Babu Ram Neupane

A writer is regarded as the creator as well as the creature of his time. Every writer bears some grudges against and appreciation for the experiences gained during his/her life. Life is what one perceives to be and his/her definition of existence is always wielded by his/her individual prejudices. When the prejudices border on the petty and selfish premises, that fallacy on the part of the writer compels him to ignore broader interests and dwell on trifling incidents devoid of justification. Though history has robbed Gurkhas of their intellectual identity by gambling their bravery and straightforwardness, yet in many instances it is mostly voluntary, they are not deprived of their home land. But when it comes to their euphoria in discarding this small and beautiful hilly country in search of affluent lifestyle somewhere abroad in Singapore, Hongkong and other so called outlandish heavens, the claim that Gurkhas have been alienated in their own land looks baseless.

The novel, Echoes of the Himalayas, protests against an unjust discrimination in making the Gurkhas alien in their own land. For that purpose the novelist has taken refuge under historical setting which is glaringly distorted to its worst in case of denouncing the "brown Aryan race", mainly the Brahmins and Chhetris. His is a poor knowledge of the constitutional provisions of Nepal and seems to have been guided by emotions against so called "two leading clans" mentioned above. There are no such "substantial" and "Brahminised" constitutional elements as perpetrated in the novel. Their language and cultures are not suppressed but a high level commission to recommend on indigenous heritage has already been formed to gear up their upliftment.

Gagan Ghondey, the major character, residing in Sikkim with his widower father (ex-Gurkha) and his family starts for Nepal due to his impulsive nature and makes way to Biratnagar where he tries to earn a square meal but in vain. He returns back his home and again he succumbs to his weakness of falling in the chasm of reverence for his native land. This time he sets out for Kathmandu and he struggles hard for acquiring Nepalese citizenship which he is denied. He nurtures hatred over this and joins an ethnic movement fighting for the cause of the marginalised castes. He is detained and his fellow comrades wage a civil war which he thinks to be the epitome of his dream.

The novelist, whose background is necessarily emotional by birth, is successful in digging out some aspects of social evils and shortcomings floating so evasively in the society. The sadistic, vulgar and obscene police sub-inspector who metes out atrocities is not an exception to our surrounding. The bureaucrats fare no better than ever before. The plight of an artist, the loss of virginity of the country lasses while "collecting firewood and herding cattle or goats" are really worth considering. His assumption that country lasses are " more experienced, hungrier and tougher" than the city girls is some what rootless provided the unsound judgment on the part of the character who has indulged himself in a deceptive physical relationship with city girls out of the urge to escape from despair and frustration in life. Biratnagar and Kathmandu are portrayed well to their utmost reality. The mushrooming of private boarding schools in Kathmandu and their vested interests in converting people into Christianity are really striking and deserve applause as being a contemporary problem. The narrow-minded behavior and race consciousness of some Kathmanduites do not go unnoticed even nowadays.

Humour is rarely served anywhere except for some farcical remarks. The verbose make up of the novel reminds us of the Indian reference books on English literature. The prevalence of popular racist remarks mars the pleasure of thorough reading. An attentive reader does stumble frequently against some proper names which are misspelt as kukris for khukuris, Jyankris for Jhyankris. Such discrepancies can be removed by the adept pen in the hand of a writer. A touch of philosophic meditation and the mention of some renowned philosophers like Albert Camus, Nietzche and like along with some poets and their expressions have added a strength to the novel.

The denial of citizenship certificate to Mongolians by the authority without any proof is the main issue for which the protagonist struggles so desperately in a stereotypical way which is in fact a non existent problem provided the legal procedure. The conception of "native" is a blurred image to the writer himself and he is disillusioned in the course of the development of loose thread of the story. It would be better if he refrained from such hopeless prejudices against his humble and patient brothers; Brahmins and Chhetris. A budding writer in the domain of fiction should consider this cultivating a wide spectrum of horizon in his mind’s eye. He would have paid much attention to the dominant role of his hero, Gagan, possibly his own dramatis personae, in bursting out to educate his lot. But Gagan outsmarts his predecessors and chooses to depart to repair an inevitable and tragic fate which he cannot. The poetic explosion of nationalistic fanaticism in any individual may cause fatal consequences bringing about a disruption in social and political life of a nation. Otherwise, the novel, is a laudable attempt. The printing and get up of the book make it smart in the crowd of publications sans quality.

(Neupane teaches English at Patan Samyukta Campus.) 

A Mediocre Endeavour

By Mark Turin

Harold Stephens is, by all accounts, a moderately well-known writer and adventurer. As the blurb on the back cover of At Home In Asia tells us, Stephens worked as a travel correspondent for The Bangkok Times as well as for Thai Airlines International for the best part of quarter of a century. He has written eight other books whose titles all have something to do with Asia and/or travel, and he has countless articles to his name. Despite all this, in At Home In Asia, he has succeeded in writing a rather boring book documenting the travels and experiences of expatriates in Asia, three of whom live in Kathmandu.

The mediocre result of his endeavours is all the more surprising given the inherently interesting subject matter he is dealing with: entrepreneurs, hoteliers, photographers and artists, to name but a few of the professions of the people whose stories he narrates. There are dare-devil stories of jungles and dramatic underwater escapes from hordes of Asian policemen, but Stephens' prose is so heavy and laboured that the stories plod along all too slowly. Within a few pages it becomes clear that even the author's stock of superlative adjectives is exhausted. Were there not something so terribly condescending lurking beneath his prose, all this might be more acceptable, but many passages have a bitter and colonial aftertaste. Try the following one, for example, about Della Butcher, Singapore's Grand Dame of the Arts:

"Her friends are oilmen from offshore rigs, jungle trekkers, filmmakers, actors and actresses, poets, writers, treasure hunters and the man and woman on the street. Some people bring home stray animals; Della brings home stray people, many of them destitute. She is one person who believes everyone is truly worth a book." (page 81)

Whilst the reader has no doubt that Della Butcher's sentiments are heartfelt, and that she is a genuinely remarkable woman, Stephens' choice of words seems to question her very sincerity and integrity. In fact, he couldn't have made it much more clichéd or sickly if he tried: comparing the destitute population of Singapore with stray animals is downright distasteful, even as a well-intentioned metaphor.

The only common thread to run through the otherwise disjointed and uncohesive fourteen biographical sketches is that of the achievements of white men and women in Asia against all odds, and despite the indolence of the locals whom they meet along the way. Asians, unless one of Stephens' chosen subjects happens to be married to one (in which case they are invariably described as 'lovely' or 'beautiful'), simply do not feature in the stories as anything more than cameo roles in which their aim is to frustrate the foreigner in his or her endeavour.

Chapters six, seven and eight deal with three of Nepal's most impressive and remarkable expatriate residents, all of whom are women deserving fuller biographies. Whilst it was a shock to discover that in Stephens' reckoning, Nepal lies in Southeast Asia (see his title), the sketches of Inger Lissonevitch, Barbara Adams and Lisa Choegyal make for good reading. The most interesting parts of each of these three portraits are those moments when Stephens presents his subjects' own words, unfiltered and unmediated. In such passages, we are offered what seem to be genuine insights into the character of Boris Lissonevitch by his wife, stories of royal romance with Prince Basundhara by Adams and an interesting perspective on the growth of tourism in Nepal by Choegyal. One failing, most acute in chapters six and seven, is the amount of space Stephens devotes to describing the prominent lovers of the two women whose stories he is narrating. One can't help feeling that, were their respective partners still alive, Stephens would have interviewed them instead of their wives. More pernicious, however, is Stephens' own introduction to Nepal, which deserves citing in full:

"But to understand these women, we must know something about Nepal, not the Nepal of today but the Nepal they found when they arrived. Kathmandu, the capital, is on the tourist map; it wasn't then. Today hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive each year; when they do it is like stepping back four centuries in time. The kingdom had been tucked away and left in isolation throughout the years, and only in the 1960s did it begin to emerge out of the past." (page 151)

This kind of purple prose is only seen in travel brochures these days, and is wholly out of place in a seemingly serious book about Asia. His preposterous simile is as insulting to Nepal as it is to the fascinating women who have chosen to make their lives here: as if Europe had 5-star hotels, internet access and 4-stroke motorbikes in the 17th Century? One cannot help but wonder how such poor copy ever got through the editing stage.

At Home In Asia is a swan song to both a style of journalism and an era which are rapidly on the wane, and thankfully so. We learn on page four that "some of the stories presented here have been previously published in part" in other places, including the in-flight magazine of a reputable international airline. The style and content of Stephens' stories may well be more suited to the air, both literally and metaphorically. May extraordinary people write their own biographies and do their extraordinary lives justice in the telling.

(Mark Turin is a linguistic anthropologist working on the Thangmi language spoken in central Nepal.)