VOA
South Asian women lag behind men in literacy, workforce participation, reproductive rights and most other areas. Yet the region’s array of female leaders put the rest of the world to shame.
With the exception of Nepal, Bhutan and Iran, Cornell University’s Kathryn March, Feminist and Professor of Anthropology, Gender, Sexuality Studies and Public Affairs says, “Every single country there has had its highest political position occupied by a woman, at least once.”
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Brandeis University’s Harleen Singh, Professor of South Asian Literature, and Women and Gender Studies, says part of the problem is that South Asia women symbolize both a cherished culture and the fear of losing traditional patriarchal controls to modernization.
Take marriage, for example.
Amna Khalid Mahmoud, a Pakistani student studying in the U.S., says girls are usually allowed to study as long as their parents cannot find a suitable match for them. She says parents want to marry off their daughters at a young age – from 16-22 – in arranged marriages.
“And when she gets married, you’re expected to offer a dowry to the family that the girl is getting married into … Once she’s married, she belongs to the other family, said Shikha Bhatnagar. “So that’s not a long-term investment, where[as] a boy or son is expected to take care of his parents throughout his life.”
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