NEW DELHI: Women have become more independent but at the same time patriarchy has also hardened, Banu Mushtaq, author of the International Booker-winning Heart Lamp said on Thursday
Mushtaq, whose book features a collection of 12 short stories written from the 1990s till 2023, was speaking at a session in the capital on Thursday.
She said that at a time when women are going for higher studies and getting employed, they are also being murdered for choosing to marry someone outside their religion.
"Patriarchy has changed and the status of women has also changed. The women are going for higher studies, good jobs and they are doing some of the best things in the world. But at the same time patriarchy has hardened," the women's rights activist said.
Heart Lamp, translated by Deepa Bhasthi from the Kannada, chronicles everyday lives of women and girls in patriarchal communities in southern India -- the reproductive rights are often exploited, power reins are held by men and there is everyday oppression of an orthodox society that seldom tolerates women's autonomy.
"We see the decisions of Khap panchayats day to day. We see a father kills his own daughter, a Muslim girl is murdered because she chose to marry a Hindu boy or a Hindu girl is murdered for marrying a Muslim boy. You see all sorts of violence meted out against women due to this patriarchy. Both the things are happening at the same time. She is liberated, educated and can take decisions, but at the same time patriarchy is giving a very hard time to women," the 77-year-old said.
'I don't see many things that have changed'
Mushtaq was joined by Bhasthi in the conversation, who said life has always been easier for women who come from a more privileged background than those from religious and racial minorities.
"In a lot of different ways things have improved for sure, but it is also important that we note what kind of women for whom things have improved, and it remains the upper caste, the economically upper class, the socially mobile.
"Those of us who come from privileged backgrounds continue to have it easier than those who come from religious minorities, racial minorities and all the other minorities," the writer-translator said.
Giving the example of the murder of tennis player Radhika Yadav, Bhasthi added that she doesn't feel "many things have changed".
"So like Banu said, in a lot of ways things have become easier, but yes, there is a hardening of patriarchy. And patriarchy is political.
"The family is the most political unit that you can find within our everyday lives. So yes, if you have a father who murders his own daughter for earning in a tennis academy, you know it's very hard to say that it's going to be a rosier future. Honestly, I don't see many things that have changed," she said.