SubscriberWrites: A demand for criminalising discrimination

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For millennia, male dominated patriarchal societies have treated women as men’s property, to be disposed off or given away or used, as their male owner wanted. A man’s stature was measured by how much land he had, how much gold he owned and how many women he had as wives or in his harem.

All kinds of “social and cultural” practices are an evidence of that – polygamy, unequal rights in marriage, break up, property inheritance, honour killings, female genital mutilation, emphasis on female virginity, child girl marriage to aged widows, practice of suttee, widow keshwapan, opposition to women’s education, employment,…. the list goes on. And most societies, to lesser or greater extent, have been guilty of this.

But today, we are in 21st century and trying to undo the injustices of the past.

All modern, democratic, secular societies have laws to criminalise discrimination, based on religion, race, gender, etc and laws to ensure equality before law for all.

Having laws does not guarantee their compliance. Men of all religious backgrounds practice polygamy. But that does not mean we should not have laws which reflect the aspirations of the society and makes such practices illegal. 

Just because polygamy is tolerated in some societies does not justify giving them legal sanction, least of all to a subsection of the society based on their religion. Polygamy perpetuates patriarchal male dominance, and is regressive, repressive and repugnant. 

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