NEWS
EVENTS
Meghalaya, India: Where women wear the trousers.
Other | Thursday 19th January 2012 | Osh
Thursday 18th January 2012
In this part of the world females are definitely the ones in charge with property names and wealth traditionally passing down from mother to daughter - however the men’s rights movement are campaigning for change.
In this small hilly state in India, which holds the world record for an unbelievable 26.5m of rain in one year, there are a small group of men who form a movement aiming to change this matrilineal system. Keith Pariat, the President of the movement itself is adamant on putting across the point that their aim is not to bring the women down but rather to bring the men up to their level. He says that the unbalance of this type of society has negative side-effects on generations of Khasi men such alcoholism and drug-abuse as a result falling short of their inherent potential. The extent of how much men are looked down upon in this society can be seen simply by taking a trip into one of there maternity wards. Mr Pariat says "If it's a girl, there will be great cheers from the family outside. If it's a boy, you will hear them mutter politely that, 'Whatever God gives us is quite all right.'" Even the Khasi language itself demoralises men. For example Mr Patriat says "A tree is masculine, but when it is turned into wood, it becomes feminine,". However, it is still a strong tradition in this culture that women are excluded from political decision making processes despite the fact that females stay in education longer. This is down to the fact that most Khasi men leave school early to help their fathers in the fields so women decide that they’re in the best position to run both their family and the house.
