What does it actually mean when a woman owns the house but not the decisions made inside it? Having recently watched a series of videos about Meghalaya’s matrilineal system, I found myself questioning a common belief: does tracing heritage through women really mean that a society is free from patriarchal norms? Meghalaya is frequently recognised as an anomaly in India, a region where surnames, clan affiliations and inherited properties are passed down through mothers. However as I delved deeper , it became increasingly clear that matriliny and matriarchy are not synonymous. Indian society is largely patriarchal but there are also some matrilineal societies that are sometimes mistaken for matriarchy. Matriliny is a system of kinship where descent and inheritance are traced through the female line, from mother to child whereas in a matriarchy women hold the primary authority and power, and descent need not necessarily be traced down the female line. Meghalaya is the epito...
WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE (with emphasis on marital stereotypes) By Maryam Chauhan "There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." - Virginia Woolf Robbing a human of his potential is the worst of all thefts. Butchering someone’s dreams is a murder par the heights of brutuality, it demands apathy akin to that of a seasoned assassin. Sucking the ‘marrow of life’ out of a living being and condemning him to a life of utter monotony and choking boundaries is similar to slow, cold torture that is meant to bleed a human dry of his very essence of being alive. Ancient India used to perceive ‘steya’ (theft) and ‘hinsa’ (violence) as the worst of all sins and here we are, living in an India where these injustices are the norm. Now I request my readers to kindly switch all the pronouns used in the above paragraph from ‘him’ to ‘her’. I used male pronouns in the dim hope that it might make a difference, it might stir...