Hindu widows

[Kevin]

Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/damon.india.widows/index.html)

are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition -- and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families.

They cannot remarry. They must not wear jewelry. They are forced to shave their heads and typically wear white. Even their shadows are considered bad luck.

"My son tells me: 'You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away,' " she says, her eyes filling with tears. "What do I do? My pain had no limit."





I just read this, and I found this incredibly sad.. I could not even imagine how a person would do this to their loved ones..

[Don Stugots]

that is really sick. what an assways backwards way to be.

[cupcakelove]

India still has a lot of problems with what I guess would be religious based persecution, especially towards people considered to be part of the Untouchables caste.

[Death Metal Moe]

And these fucking savages are doing all our tech support?

Fuck you AND your cows!

[King Hippos Bandaid]

this is quite wrong
:king:

[JPMNICK]

If India and China get their shit together, watch out they will be dominating the world. WW III will start with the 2 of them.

[FMJeff]

If India and China get their shit together, watch out they will be dominating the world. WW III will start with the 2 of them.

I would imagine it will be very difficult to be a dominating power when you're still holding on to barbaric traditions like this.

[Fat_Sunny]

One Of The Things That Gives A Glimmer Of Hope For The Future, Is The Untapped Poltical Power Of Women In The Islamic World, India, And China.

When They Finally Rise Up And Say "Enough Of This Nonsense", Then That Will Be The End Of The Nonsense!

[JPMNICK]

I would imagine it will be very difficult to be a dominating power when you're still holding on to barbaric traditions like this.

that's what I meant when I said they have to get their shit together. they have to drop those 2000 year old traditions and assimiliate with the rest of the world.

[foodcourtdruide]

I'm always torn on issues like this. On one hand, I believe in equal rights for all people and feel incredibly sad that the poor people of the world have to suffer, on the other hand I think the belief that "our culture is better and more humane than yours and you should do things as we do" is ethnocentric and arrogant. I go back and forth.

I had a cultural anthropology professor in college that asked, "Do you think the United States should be able to dictate cultures in other countries?" and when we all replied "NO!" he said, "what if part of their culture says that when a man dies, his unwed daughters must be sacrificed?"

I miss college.

[Skellington]

One Of The Things That Gives A Glimmer Of Hope For The Future, Is The Untapped Poltical Power Of Women In The Islamic World, India, And China.

When They Finally Rise Up And Say "Enough Of This Nonsense", Then That Will Be The End Of The Nonsense!

tOO bAD wHENEVER tHEY tRY, tHEY aRE eXECUTED.

[cupcakelove]

I'm always torn on issues like this. On one hand, I believe in equal rights for all people and feel incredibly sad that the poor people of the world have to suffer, on the other hand I think the belief that "our culture is better and more humane than yours and you should do things as we do" is ethnocentric and arrogant. I go back and forth.

I had a cultural anthropology professor in college that asked, "Do you think the United States should be able to dictate cultures in other countries?" and when we all replied "NO!" he said, "what if part of their culture says that when a man dies, his unwed daughters must be sacrificed?"

I miss college.

I also took an anthropology class in college, and of course had the exact same discussion. I agree with the conclusion that the professor came to, that you should draw the line at tolerating intolerance. Cultures that discriminated against parts of their population based on things like race or gender should be discouraged from doing so, and I don't believe that thinking that way makes you arrogant.

[FMJeff]

There's also a couple of things in thier justification that are inherently flawed. The women are discarded because they are percieved to be a drain on the resources of the family. Well if you think about it, from a societal point of view, these women then become a drain on public resources. Without proper medical treatment, they become hosts to opportunistic disease and subsequent treatment regiments. They also litter the streets, burdening the cities with increased sanitation costs as well as body disposal when they die. In the meantime, all that human energy is completely wasted instead of being harnessed to benefit the public good. One of the reasons why we won World War II was the simple fact that our women picked up the manufacturing slack where we left off, filling the positions left behind by men in the munition and vehicle production facilities.

I bet you amongst these women there are many skilled workers that can be employed in some fashion to help an already impoverished rural India.

But this is India for you, a country wrestling with old and new in its attempt to become a global power. Its just not there yet.