Germaine and Mona dissect violence against women

Despite being delayed for a good fifteen minutes, popular activist Germaine Greer’s session with Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, which was co-chaired by writer Shobhaa De was met with loud cheering and applause from the audience at Prithvi Theatre. Titled “Will women always be the second sex ” the session included discussions on a variety of topics ranging from misogyny and surrogacy practices to genital mutilation, on day three of the Tata Lit Fest.

Kick-starting the session with a question on women’s rights relating to pregnancy, Germaine stated, “As long as women continue to give birth, we will never be free.” She further elaborated, “The state has an interest, the father has an interest; even the tiny organism living in the womb has an interest. A woman cannot dictate terms about her body today. If women didn’t produce the next generation, would we be still here ”

Egyptian-American journalist and feminist writer, Mona Eltahawy spoke about sexual harassment in her argument. Mona, who was part of the 18-day revolution that toppled Egypt’s erstwhile regime recounted her travails and said, “Men and women who were against the dictator were locked up in a military jail. They asked us if we were married or not, which meant whether we were virgins because only the married could be sexually assaulted. Virgins are still considered to be chaste.”

Mona who has documented her struggles in her book, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, went on to add, “You own your body. It is not the state, or your religion or your family, but you! And stay out of my vagina unless I want you in there,” she exclaimed.

While the debate reached consensus on many issues regarding gender equality and women empowerment, Germaine’s strong comments raised more than a few eyebrows. The activist, who has never been one for mincing words, courted controversy as she took on singer Sir Elton John and also trans-athlete cum reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner. Questioning Elton John’s move to name his partner David Furnish as the mother of his two surrogate sons, Germaine said, “The concept of motherhood has emptied out. I think it is still a masculine society designed to use women.” Previously, Germaine has received flak for opining that transgenders are not women. The author of the book Female Eunuch said, “What really concerns me is that how a man-turned woman made it to the cover of the Vanity Fair. I think there is misogyny involved in a sense that a man will go to great lengths to become a woman, but she will still be a better woman than born woman. Does it mean that woman are inferior ”

The Q&A session saw some drama when Javed Akhtar, who was sitting in the audience directed a question to the panelists on why women encourage their children to follow their religion. Can’t they just bring them up as ‘reasonable atheists’, he pointed out. Mona spoke about how a lot of women see religion as freedom and find it hard to break away from it. Not finding a satisfactory answer, Javed repeated his question this time in a firmer tone. To that Germaine shot back saying, “Why is it okay for a man to shout at a woman ” Her retort was met with loud cheering from the audience.