I strongly feel the need to speak up about what has just recently transpired in New Delhi, India, my parents homeland. The gang rape, beating and ultimately, the murder of a young Indian woman. My parents immigrated to Canada a few years before I was born. As many others can relate, I found it challenging to navigate through both of these cultures. My father was dead set on me and my siblings learning English and functioning in this society, and yet he treated my mother like a second-class citizen, the way they still do in India today. As a teen, I identified more with being a Canadian and resented most things that reminded me of where my parents had originated. I struggled for years to find beauty in a land I had never lived in, yet was so deeply rooted in me. I knew that if I was ever to find real peace..my South Asian backround was indeed going to be a large part of this. I believe I have almost found what I have been so ardently looking for, there is one piece of the puzzle still missing however. India, and more specifically Hinduism, since it is the religious majority at over 80% is supposed to hold women up on pedestals, worship them and treat them like the goddesses they are. That is what is said in Hindu scriptures that have been passed on for hundreds of years. But who have they been passed on to? Men. Not women. Men. Something has gotten terribly lost along the way. And it needs to stop right now.Hinduism is making a mockery of itself by preaching peace, vegetarianism and yoga. Crimes against women go mostly unpunished in this self-preaching "non-violent" country. Now that news of the Delhi Gang Rape has made it all around the world, it has nothing left to do, but hang its head in shame and ask for forgiveness, and change. Not from the world, but from its own women. The same women it has been oppressing for too long. RIP Damini.
Friday, December 28, 2012
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Saturday, December 15, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
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