Why were women Enslaved? Is an anthology published in 1942, written by Periyar E V Ramasamy. He was called Socrates of South East Asia by the UNESCO. He was a radical feminist and a social reformer who fought for the liberty against the social hierarchy and dominance in the name of religion. In this book, Periyar speaks about different concepts that are the reasons for the enslavement of women.
He speaks about Chastity (purity). He smashes the society why there is chastity only for women and not for men. "The chastity is to be damaged not only when a woman is raped but also when she has sex outside the marriage", society says. There is no concept of Chastity naturally, it is built by the society against women to make them slaves of men because a woman shouldn't break a marriage if she doesn't like her husband and also she shouldn't marry another man after her husband's death to preserve her chastity. The book gives data about No. Of widows under 5 years of age (census 1921)
He is a progressive liberal who vehemently protested against the conservatism that obstructed the liberty of all people. He points out some works of Thiruvalluvar and Avvaiyar which were against the women freedom. People who are celebrating them are blindly accepting their words and enslaving women without rational thinking.
He speaks about love ie, love is not constant and might not be permanent on anybody. So, men and women should accept they don't have love anymore and break their marriage and remarry to live their fullest instead of living together for the sake of chastity or religious codes. He speaks about women's rights to divorce which aren't possible those days.
He speaks about prostitution in which always women are considered wrongdoers while men also involved in it. If a man and women have sex outside the marriage, the woman is to be attacked by society. It is enslavement.
He speaks about equal property rights for women. Only when women have given property rights, they will be independent and not be considered men's slave. He talks about birth control since giving birth is the prime reason for a woman being enslaved. He goes very radical in this view and asks women to protest against having children. And at last, he says masculinity should be destroyed for the women's liberation. Masculinity means Superior to the femininity ie., only men can save women and women cannot be independent.
Though I may disagree with his points in birth control as women in western countries having three children and still achieving their ambitions, I agree with most of his other arguments. I believe his radical writings are necessary for the liberty of women. He points out the conservative mindset of the people and celebrating the conservatism, tradition and religion, blindly is the reason for all social evils. His ideas influenced the Dravidian politics and gave rise to many progressive laws in Tamil Nadu. I recommend this book to all women here to read and get liberated.
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