Women are hardly respected in some parts of the world especially in developing nations. And matters are made worse when one considers the manner of jobs women in developing nations engage themselves in to fend for their families. A preacher once narrated the ordeal of women in his village: women do the house chores ranging from sweeping and cleaning the house and environs, bathing the many children of the family and cooking to weeding the farm and using their heads as transport for the harvested farm produce with their infants on their backs. When night comes, these same burden-laden women are expected to perform an all important ritual: have sex with their husbands. The final straw in this disrespect is that their husbands would end up using them to attain their orgasmic ecstasy leaving their women spent and used!
In my study with some folks from a country in East Africa, I realized that some cultures have institutionalized disrespect for women. One of them said his parents mandated him to beat up his elder sister whenever she ‘misbehaved’. What a world-view! Where has respect for women gone to? Or were they not created by God too? Frankly, I sympathize with my East African friends and those who do likewise.
Why disrespect women? Has it not occurred to you that they were created special to plant love in our hearts? It is sheer aberration to deny the wellsprings of love that with which they nurtured us. It is no longer news that ‘being a woman’ seem rather more difficult that ‘being a man’. Hence, we must endeavour to make their ‘burden’ lighter. Women are a gift to the world and they deserve honour not dishonour.
