Sujata Mody questions Western notions of Feminism

Sujata Mody. <sujatamody063@gmail.com>	11:56 AM (7 hours ago)
to the-moderates

I was in Berlin in the mid 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin wall, and was struck by the hundred of women from eastern Europe who were engaged in sex trade. Trafficking was the key word in women's groups. Eastern Europeans were confused, wanted freedom, but the lack of security was demeaning and frightening to them. 

 I also witnessed the arrogance of western feminism over their Eastern European counterparts, but the streets had huge posters and advertisements using women's bodies. 

Today's piece in the Guardian about the horrid Playboy business magnate tells a lot about the achievements of western feminism. The way in which western feminism has allowed women's bodies to be commoditised and refused to challenge colonisation, capitalism and consumerism is an enormous failure. We in the former colonised and developing world have deepened our understanding of feminism. The western feminists got the condom and birth control pill, and the prosperity through white imperialism, but did they get liberation? Why is there so much inequality in ownership of wealth and does individualization of  freedoms alone mean women are better off. 

Feminism needs to be a much deeper exercise, it really must deal with the liberation and equality of all women, not some Indra Nooyi, while the others must look at them in wonderment. These are just some thoughts that come to my mind... Can we call someone who sells Pepsi and Coco Cola a feminist, someone who is instrumental in usurping water resources for private profit?

 If I am wrong, I would think my entire life and work is wasted, as I spent with penniless, propertyless and powerless women, understanding and trying to make a difference.

I am asking western feminists who did not rage against war in Afghanistan, accepting government propaganda that  war was required to destroy the Taliban had pushed women into the middle ages. It was such hogwash. They supported the worst regime - Saudi Arabia, while they without much noise recently destroyed Libya and Syria and would have done the same for Iran if they could. 

We in India have an onerous task of dealing with the huge irrational baggage of Hinduism, along with prevailing hinduised  sematic religions. There is no space for feminism, no rationality, no truth... While triple talaq did make a dent into the regressive Islam, are we working to build greater gender equality within the communities and groups that follow Islam?  

The small spaces of freedom and privilege do exist for  women all over the world and in all religions. However,  what is the route for the larger groupings to be less free? What do we in the Moderates think??