Feminism in Action in India

        This week I chose a different type of article. This is a fun type of article that a writer for BBC did from her experience in India. Apparently many years ago our writer, Geeta Pandey, was traveling on an assignment for the BBC.  She was traveling on an overnight train when a man sitting opposite of her struck up a conversation with her. He asked many questions like what part of India was she from and what her careers was. Then he asked her, "What does your husband do?" This question got Geeta thinking hard. She had not told him she was married and she got the impression that he didn't really care about her career as a journalist for BBC.  At that moment she got the impression that she was just a woman who was insignificant unless she had the label of wife, daughter, or sister. She was just a woman in India's patriarchal society. Greta is not the only one who has been asked this questions many times before by men who she has barely met. Her friends have had to deal with the same question.
         Therefore, Geeta decided to do an experiment on the men of India by asking them, "What does your wife do?".  This experiment surprised Geeta as she realized that most men were willing to answer the question even though they had never been asked this question before. In the article she has pictures and the interviews she did with the men.  Some men replied to her question and experiment with joy when asked about their wives. They also gave their own explanation as to why women get asked this question. One man said it was because Indian's are friendly and joyful people that just want to connect with others. This other man said it was because people in Indian think that woman needs to be married and cannot accept a woman who is not married. My personal favorite was the last man in her article. He came off a little aggressively when asked the question. He responded with, " Who are you? Why are you asking me this question? You have no business asking me this question". When Geeta told him about her experiment he stated it was "okay for men to ask you this question if they've been talking to you for about half an hour".

What do you think? Does India have a patriarchal mindset? Do you agree with some men's opinions?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31828529