For my post below, I have done a small but critical typo correction, and provided a minor clarification. Let me add a bit more of my thoughts on women's rights.
I think the issue of women's rights is qualitatively very different from all other human rights issues that are being talked about in the world. It is not an issue that is only, or even mostly, for women to care about. It is an issue for both men and women. Men as a class can not expect their class in the next generations to be physically and mentally healthy without the current generation of women being physically and mentally healthy. Sounds too obvious, right? Unfortunately, many societies in the world do not seem to grasp this.
For example, look at Afghanistan, where women have to cover themselves head to toe and can not go to school. If this is not changed, they will remain in the Stone Age for a long time.
Look at even Saudi Arabia, where women are treated as miserably. They have petroleum, which makes them materially rich. Who provides them with life's comfort via application of science and technology? Who provides them military strength? The answer to both questions would be, the infidels. While they export Islamic fanaticism (and hatred against non-Muslims) to the poor countries of the world, they had no power to challenge the big infidel (USA), when Iraq was bombed as a good target for weapons practice.
The bottom line is, stupid women produce stupid men. That is why men need to fight for women's rights as much as women do.
Sukhamaya Bain
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From: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2012 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar to mark Int'l Women's Day
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2012 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar to mark Int'l Women's Day
The women that posed nude in this calendar are from Western societies, where half naked sunbathing is quite common, and nudity is not really a big deal. That is why I think this calendar is no revolution. I do not think it serves the cause of women's emancipation at all in the Western societies.
In societies that demand excessive body covering for women, this kind of 'revolution' is looked upon as just shameless indecency. No respect or sympathy or even attention is earned by the nudity of Western women, who are perceived to be shameless anyway.
Now, if some women from countries like Saudi Arabia , where women are forced to cover themselves head to toe, did this calendar, that probably would have been revolutionary. Of course, they would be severely punished in their own countries. If they did it after coming to a Western country, they probably would be reasonably protected, and their act could get some credit of a revolution.
In any case, I would not ask even the Saudi women to get this idea of a revolution. There are better ways for the emancipation of women.
The real progress for women is happening through education. In my nine years of teaching at US universities in the 1980s and 1990s, I saw young women that were highly motivated to learn and be at the top of their class. This is the kind of women that would be increasingly in the business of running this country. The culture of being and acting dumb for dates is surely going away.
Of course, as the human civilization progresses, men would increasingly realize that women are not like alien creatures, they are the real better half of the human civilization. As I wrote before, we as individuals owe more than half of our life to our mothers. Two cells can form a life. To sustain that life, the shelter of the mother's womb and nutrition from the mother's body are essential. A lot of the mental development also begins while the new life is in the mother's womb. Thus, stupid and deprived women are not good for the human civilization. I am sure, educated men who are fathers now and care about the future of the human civilization do not want their daughters to be stupid, deprived and subservient.
Sukhamaya Bain
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From: Subimal Chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com>
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 9, 2012 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar to mark Int'l Women's Day
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, March 9, 2012 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Nude Photo Revolutionary Calendar to mark Int'l Women's Day
It may sound odd, but I am actually amazed by the revolutionary idea of protest. Think about some one who refuses to accept food as a protest against the fact that she has been denied food repeatedly before.
Man loves to see and use nude women in his privacy. He will do that with his power and money. The same man will advocate for complete covering of the body of a woman in public life! He will even severely punish her if she does not cover herself completely. The revolutionary protest is a revolt against such a hypocrisy. Obviously it is symbolic. The message is: hey greedy man, see with your greedy eyes what you want to see. Hopefully this will vehemently shake his conscience. Again this is absolutely symbolic. Protests have been made by those rebel women who have shouldered all the burden of protest and in whom the anger has reached the point to take off all the clothes.
Sent from my iPhone
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