Damaru Lal Bhandari

Kathmandu, July 21:

While more and more urban women have become articulate in bringing about gender equality

following the political changes of 1990, activists however lament the missing zeal to strike absolute gender parity. “We have had a good start in improving gender relations after 1990. But what is still missing is the institutional will to enforce the laws in right spirit,” said Sapana Malla Pradhan, a corpoate lawyer-turned-gender activist. She said the feminist movement is now catching the imagination of more and more gender activists and journalists, with gender related issues no longer deemed to be that of the fairer sex alone. “It is heartening that we are attracting international attention on the issue.

This has pushed us a little further in our fight against patriarchal societal patterns,” Malla said. She singled out desired changes in laws governing divorce, right to parental property and abortion “thus treating womenfolk a bit more gently.” However, not much can be achieved with legislation as a tool since, as Durga Ghimire, another gender activist, said, “No-one can do much to change the way men think about women in general.” Ghimire, too, said that feminist movement has come a long way in fighting religious and social orthodoxies. She insisted that “feminist movemment belongs to men as well. Men are more likely to benefit from gender parity than women.”