Dr.Sanjay

Last Monday we had this amazing discussion with Dr. Sanjay. He was a guest speaker that came from Varanasi and is also a friend of Liz. He is a huge women right activist in India. Sanjay is actually his first name and only name. He dropped his last name because he no longer wanted to be identified by his cast. In India you can easily identify the cast a person belongs to by their last name. The cast system is technically illegal but it is so deeply imbedded in the Indian culture discrimination still occurs. He held a class to talk about his campaign and I loved it. I really feel this man is way ahead of his time concerning human rights in India. He started the class with everyone hold hands tell us we are all equal both men and women. This was so nice to hear because being in India as a female  really makes you revaluate your importance in this world as a female . He then separated us into two groups, male and female. We then talked about the different issues we face as separate sexes. Dr. Sanjay then explained his life story as to why he is so passionate about gender equality. He talked about the male ego and how it is hegemonic and dominating. He talked about dowry burning, rape and other acts of violence that occur in India against women. He said educating  women is only the beginning to gender equality.  In the Indian society were males are so dominate we need to educate men as well. He said we need to stop promoting gender difference and that men and women need to be able to coexists peacefully. I loved listening to him because he was so passionate when he spoke. He said his family does not support him or his wife on their quest to fight gender inequality. He said his family harassed his wife and child because they are all feminists.  The last thing he said was gender inequality needs to stops and we need to support the men and women who protest it. Dr. Sanjay was such a breath of fresh air.