I am replying to a small part of what Lesley Hall wrote... I have thus
included only the relevent sections...
> In India (I can only really speak for New Delhi) there was not the
sense of
>purdah which there had been in Pakistan (and which had been much less in
>evidence in Afghanistan, at least in Kabul), but much more specific and hard
>to repel pick-up attempts in the streets. Not of course an Islamic culture,
>though perhaps more influenced by it than South India?
I travelled in from Delhi to Agra to Varanasi to Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Rajgir,
Nalanda, KAthmandu, Calcutta, Madras (Chennai) and finally Colombo and
around Sri Lanka. I found that white women were generally not treated very
well in India, mainly due to the perceived reliance Indian women have on
men. OFten you'd be asked, "Where's your husband?". Hinduism seems to be
the dominant religion in INdia, aklthough many others do seem to be growing
in Strength. The biggest problem with being a woman in INdia is the tight
cultural bonds that are placed on girls and women in INdia itslef. White
women are seen as "loose" and "easy" because they commonly have sex before
marriage etcetera. Also most pornography in India is from Germany and
Holland (probably other European countries and perhaps also USA), and thus
portrays white women- So Indian blokes think, "They're all like that". It's
most annoying!
You can do your best- wearing loose fitting and/or modest clothing but you
still may get groped on busses etcetera. I knew one woman who found the
solution. She shaved her head. If you do this they think you are on a
spiritual search and you are left alone. Monks are most often treated with
respect. The pick up attempts are most annoying because they wouldn't dream
of trying them on local women. Apart from the constant harrasment, INdia is
a very beautiful and rewarding place. I met a woman on the Cordmandur (sp?)
Express (Calcutta to Madras) who was an English Lecturer at a University on
the East Coast, she was the only Indian woman I really talked to at length,
I wish I had more time to talk feminism with her! I have tried to write,
but to no avail.
Salutes, |\| | |\/| ~8>P <nfjayawa@darwin.ntu.edu.au> (Nimal Jayawardhana)
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