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The characters in this play are: a female artist, a male poet, a women's lib activist and a male politician.

Politician: I do not understand why we have to call a meeting for women's liberation. Creating more rivalry, that is all these debates are doing-causing division among us! Some people are bringing up these issues nowadays and causing disruption in the society. All inequalities will be dissolved as soon as we bring equality in society through our movement. To have a separate movement for women's issues will only cause disunity among men and women, disruption and reduction of workforce, of vigor in life.

Women's Lib Activist: Women's liberation and liberation of the downtrodden are two separate things altogether. The poorest farmer who does not have anything to eat everyday, also treats his wife like a slave-the unemployed man beats up his earning wife, takes away her money. Irrespective of their situations, most men treat their wives as their property.

Poet: We do need women's liberation. But, think about it, why should we only think of women's liberation and not about over-all freedom at all levels of society? Isn't it an easy way of trying to be 'progressive'? Seems to me this is a plan to take our eyes off of the real issues.

Activist: Aren't you all assuming that 'women's lib' is an unimportant issue? I think this is a sexist point of view. Half of the human race is trying to fight off the inequality and deprivation they are facing everyday-isn't this an important enough issue? Isn't this part of the reality you and I are facing? Are you saying that if socialism fails, women should go on living the life of a slave? I think this is too much to ask!

Politician: We believe that all human beings should have equal rights. And only politically gained freedom can assure these rights to everybody, men and women alike. We are giving a lot of incentives and advantages to our women's organizations-they are working diligently to bring out consciousness among our women. So you see, we do believe in giving equal rights to everybody, even women.

Activist: Who are you to give equal rights, sir? Is this something like handing out candy to a child? I don't think you understand the issue at all. Women will not benefit from your political movements. Women's liberation movement is a different ball game. We the women face inequality from men within your party and outside.

Poet: You are getting angry, aren't you? But you look beautiful when you are angry! Great poems have been born out of your anger, your laughter, and your sorrow. You are our inspiration, without you all creation would stop. There is nothing in this world we cannot give you! Could you tell us exactly what you want from us?

Artist: Did you know that women also paint pictures, write poetry, and are sculptors and architects? To conceive them just as inspiration is to deny the existence of their inherent creativity. Do you ever think that men can also be inspiration for women?

Poet: I did not deny that. But when you paint a picture, do you just paint a male figure? I just came back from an exhibition at the Birla Academy where I saw women painting nudes of other women.

Artist: Do you know why we do that? It's a common belief that to acquire expertise at painting or drawing, you have to learn how to paint or draw a nude. Art is a part of Aesthetics, and is creation of man, and that is why drawing women's nude figures have become a condition of learning it. The beauty of a male figure has never been attractive to you men. We see a lot of nude ladies in the renaissance paintings, where there are clothed men seen alongside. You must agree that art is created by men, and by what they see with their eyes, won't you?

Poet: May I ask how many women Michelangelos or woman Picassos you know of? The women themselves haven't been able to prove that they have any other talent besides just being a good housewife, have they?

Artist: Amrita Shergil, Ajit Kaur, Shanu Lahiri, Amrita Pritam, and Mahasweta Devi. How about Virginia Woolf, Victoria Ocampo.

Poet: That's not too many my dear! Look at the whole world could a woman ever be a Rabindranath, or a Jamini Roy, a Shakespeare or a Matisse?

Politician: You people are going out of point now; please argue about these things away from here-I have to go for an inauguration ceremony in a little while.

Activist: But I have something to say to you all! I do not know much about art or literature, but may be can throw some light on why women have not done so well in the past in these fields! Women have been forced to bear the responsibility of taking care of the family and home since the origin of family systems. They did not have the chance to concentrate on anything else.

Politician: That's a lame excuse! My wife takes care of our home, participates in politics, and has a job too. You can do all these if you have the capability.

Activist: How about you? You don't do any housework yourself, do you sir? This means your wife is working harder than you.

Politician: Me? Doing housework? I don't have the time!

Activist: This is the reason you have been able to get ahead a lot in your political career-but your wife could not. She has housework and a job to take care of along with the work she has to do to achieve her political aspirations.

Politician: Women cannot do everything, can they? Do you know how much risk I have to take in this job from time to time?

Artist: Aung San Suu can do it, so can Benazir or Khaleda Zia, can't they?

Activist: They got support from their families--others have shared housework and rearing children with them also, that's why they could be successful.

Poet: I heard Benazir has two or three kids. It's not a problem if you are capable.

Activist: Have you ever taken care of a ten-month old baby or a one and half year old or a five-year-old kid for a week? Can you do it if there is no woman nearby? I doubt if there is any man who can do it.

Politician: Have to do it if we need to. If the woman of the family falls sick, the kids do not die off, do they? Men do look after them at that time.

Activist: If you really try and find out, you will see that the sick woman had to get up from bed so many times because her husband can't manage it, or other women came in and helped.

Poet: I like spending time with kids. But those seven days would be wasted-I won't be able to write-so I will be irritated-may be I would have to cook also.

Artist: But for thousands of years women have been doing these jobs and doing it without being irritated. The world would have gone to docks if they thought rearing a child is wastage of time. You have brainwashed us into thinking that this is a woman's job, and we have accepted it. And now you are telling us why there is no woman Shakespeare or woman Picasso!

Politician: But why is that so bad? Progress in civilization has been possible because of division of labor. Art and science wouldn't have progressed so much if men also did these jobs.

Activist: That might be true. But as a result you have worked women as house servants and have built your successes on their labor-this did not give the equal rights they deserved. You are arguing like a capitalist, aren't you, sir!

Politician: "Equal rights" is an idea-it cannot be made possible absolutely in the real world. The one with power will always enjoy more rights.

Artist: But the oppressed will ask for equal rights also! Women wouldn't have got the right to vote if they hadn't asked for it. They wouldn't get the right to divorce also-one-sided taalaq would have gone on!

Poet: What did you gain with divorce? Was it too bad a situation before there weren't too many divorces going on? With freedom you are breaking off families.

Artist: That's because the institution of family has been built on our bondage. You must have read Engels, haven't you? Also, how many feminists have broken their families and homes? From what I have seen most of them love their husbands and children, and at the same time try to do things they believe in.

Politician: So you are trying to break up families and are creating theories in support of that by throwing Engels in our face!

Activist: What's the use of a family where the wife is abused, the husband a regular customer at 'Sonagachhi,' the children learn wrong things by watching wrongs being committed! Have you ever thought why a woman would want to break up the home that she herself built up so painstakingly? Do you know the statistics of woman abuse in our country?

Poet: Well, what do you mean by woman abuse?

Activist: Taunting and ridiculing in the family, sexual assault, physical abuse if the dowry does not satisfy the greed, killing off female embryos, bride burning, and other ways of murdering a wife, rape-these are acute examples of woman abuse in our country. Besides these, the women in our country face subtle abuse everyday in the forms of neglect, made fun of, eve teasing, lack of freedom, and so on. According to the psychologists, these are ways men choose to impose their superiority over women. In western countries like America and Australia, statistics show that one out of three women is abused by her partner.

Politician: The first list of actions fall under crime, and the law and police force in our country must be taking care of that. The second list you mentioned is a matter of personal and domestic relations.

Activist: You cannot shirk responsibilities by saying that. You are one of the representatives of the people of this country. Could you say this if your daughter was a victim?

Politician: Please don't bring in personal issues into it? Also, you cannot look at these things from one side only. The other day I read in the paper that abused husbands have formed a club and were having a meeting. The wives came in the middle of it and beat up the husbands!

Activist: I hope you have investigated and determined the truth of this news! Even then, this is a stray event in a few people's lives. You will never find many cases like this. These events will not even come into count in statistics. But woman abuse happens to one in three families in India-in the whole world.

Poet: Did you know that poet Jibanananda Das's wife had been after him all his life for writing poetry? I can give you more examples like this.

Artist: But women have to take a lot more persecution and harassment when they paint, act in dramas, enter into politics. Usha Ganguly spoke about a woman drama-actor, who used to be bound up and imprisoned into her home by her family the day she was supposed to act in a drama. And women like wife of Jibanananda are products of a society where we are taught that money is more important than art. Women have been kept away from art and the appreciation of art. I would not be surprised at all if all women were like her!

Poet: I don't think you are right. Through generations we have seen women writing rhymes, creating exquisite rangolis, making beautiful quilts. Women in our society did indulge in art; the society has not kept them deprived of it.

Artist: This proves that they are also capable of creating art. But they have been allowed to indulge in the small-scale art only where nobody remembers the creator's name. In the middle ages, a woman was very attracted to the poetries of Tukaram and started writing poetry in Marathi herself. Her husband drove her out of their home because of that. Khanaa's tongue was severed because she could predict the future and put it into beautiful verses. She was murdered because she was more talented than her husband and her father-in-law. We have been telling this story to our children all this time by softening it, not denouncing it-as if cutting off the tongue of a woman is of no significance! Joan of Ark had to die burning being branded as a witch because she had a mind of her own, and challenged the men of her society. And bride burning is our tradition, our legacy-it started when they tried it on Sita! Ram could not protect his wife--but worried that the precious jewel named 'chastity' had been lost, opted to burn Sita on the pyre. And we call it The Trial By Fire with reverence and awe! Have you ever seen anybody come out of fire unscathed? When she got saved from that somehow she had to go to exile in the forest. In the end she was just buried alive-that finally took care of her! It is unthinkable how Ramayana can be the Holy Book of any religion, and how people can give ovation to Ram's name!

And it is amazing how describing him as a person with his famous 'love for his wife has tactfully covered up the murdering of his wife.

Poet: That is true-to make Ram a God figure is the shame of our nation. I thank you for opening my eyes, I have never thought of the Ramayana in this way. I also did not know how widespread woman abuse was.

Politician: But don't you think that women themselves are the worst enemies of women? Most of the woman-abuse is committed by the mother-in-law or the sister-in-law.

Artist: A worker cannot be the enemy of another worker. Sometimes some of them sabotage their cause when the management bribes them. It would be easier for you to understand if you divide women in two categories--unaware class and class conscious. For four or five thousand years women have been under the patriarchal system, run by men, controlled by men, where women have been men's domestic helpers only. In this role they have formed a philosophy of their own. The society also has accepted this system as the right system because it has been going on for so long. We have lost our urge to ask questions. The very few protesters, be they men or women, have been defeated, destroyed. The women have been taught that they have the responsibility of keeping the society intact and most women have not been able to get out of this brainwashing. You need time to think, courage to question and protest. Not everybody possesses this courage. Those who cannot protest or do not have the courage, go against women who can, against women who are freethinkers. They are the proponents of patriarchy in our society and abuse other women on behalf of it.

Politician: So-what do these freethinkers want to say? Are they trying to say we need to break up the family since inequality starts from family and division of labor?

Activist: There has been a lot of research on broken and alternative family systems in Europe, America and the Soviet Union. What has been decided is that we do need to have a family system-we cannot say like Engels that we want to abolish the family. But women have started to ask questions about their place in society, about their place as a human being all over the country and all over the world-it will be hard to keep the family system alive if we, all of us together, cannot find a solution to these questions-keeping the family intact.

Readers-who won and what the solution is, is up to you. -Author.

The arguments in this debate are, of course, the writer's argument. Also, this piece has been written with West Bengal, India as the backdrop, and the political discussions (especially where the politician was dealt with) are typical of the area. The writer obviously is addressing the politicians of West Bengal.-Translator.

Mallika Sengupta is a professor and head of department of Sociology in Maharani Kashiswari College in Calcutta India. She is a poet and is a dedicated writer on women's issues for a long time. She has also translated poems from Hindi, Maithili, Malayalam, Oriya, and KannaDa, mostly in English.

Saheli is an all-volunteer non-profit support and advocacy organization for Asian families in Austin, Texas. Saheli's mission is to help victims and survivors of domestic violence to heal, and empower them to make choices for a life free of abuse. We spread awareness of various forms of oppression against women and children through community outreach and education. We form a bridge between the Asian community and local services to cross the culture gap. Saheli's vision is to work toward preventing abuse in family relationships, to break the cycle of violence and pursue a cycle of peace. For more information about Saheli, visit www.main.org/saheli
To contact us call (512) 703-8745
or send e-mail to: saheli@usa.net

Opinions expressed in this column are those of the authors alone.

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