Do you think women were subject to exploitation in the past?

Crime against women isn’t confined to any place, religion or time. Women are always exploited and remain within the circumference limits. In the past, women were not allowed to vote & if they do then their vote doesn’t carry any value.

King was the leader and not the Queen

In India, the King used to manage it’s kingdom and not the queen. However, exceptions are always there like Rani Laxmi Bai also known as “Jhasi ki rani ”. But the no. is less than a percent.

But do you remember any one other woman’s name who used to manage her kingdom?

It is a fact that untrained men have more physical power than the untrained women but after the training both can become equally efficient. But still women were allowed to engage in such activities. They were confined to household chores.

Marriage, Sati Pratha & exploitation

Women weren’t treated as human. Many a time women were forced to marry a king if they were defeated in any battle. For instance Jodha was married to Akbar after her father was defeated in the battle.

Never treated equally as the male counterpart because it was believed that a woman is recognised by her father and after her marriage she is recognised by her husband and doesn’t have any individual identity of her own.

Earlier Sati pratha was practiced where she was forced to marry herself with the dead body of her husband. This injustice was abolished by the initiative taken by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

There are many instances where women were exploited no matter whether they are Queen, princess or they were having their own struggle against injustice at different levels.

Child marriage was prevalent during those days as the girl was married to a man who were double of her age as a result of which she becomes widow at early age of her life.

Even if she is not subject to sati pratha, she has to live her life without colour. A girl full of love was compelled to live her rest of life with a cold heart.

Decision making power not vested in women’s hand

Women were not engaged in the administrative system of the Kingdom, she was supposed to sit behind the curtain. In addition, the man was allowed to marry as many women as he wanted but women were not even allowed to live separately. The concept of judicial separation & divorce was not available. Among Muslims, men were allowed to give divorce while women were not allowed to.