Ninjas!

Ok, they're not ninjas, but I have been fascinated by the Muslim ladies around here. We all catch them in the crowd and want to see what cool things they are doing. This is probably bad, but one day we were in a shopping area and this young ninja slid by me. She was very petite and her burka was less drapey than others if you acquire my drift. As we crossed she flipped her big, Egyptian-style eyes back at me and gave me a look.

Pow. My heart went pitta-pat. So mysterious! Such pretty eyes. It was a nice moment.
I have to admit that it's easy to think of Muslims as alien, as Other. Even as a total stranger in this ancient culture, full of differing races, religions, creeds and castes, I somehow see Muslims as even more separate and different than the others when really, they fit in and I'm the alien. As I write this I feel like what I'm describing is my own racism. I guess I'll have to work on that.

Still. I'm not entirely comfortable with some of the treatment of the ladies that goes on.

Which takes me to Women's Day.

They had a holiday to celebrate women here recently. It was coinciding with a vote in government to create a quota of 33% women in legislative bodies. This created a tumult that has been all over the news. In congress some dudes went up to the speaker and expressed their anti-Lady-Law outrage by throwing papers and grabbing the microphone. It made calling Obama a liar seem like genteel behavior. The bill passed but there is more hubbub about it today. It's hard to follow the politics of it in the newspaper because they abbreviate everything. Typica headline:

"RJD, SP MPs Sully RS!"

For the most part, women in business are treated well. Indians generally assume that if a woman got to a position of authority that she is probably pretty capable. That's a great attitude that contrasts starkly with a common American assumption about how some women get to power. There is still a lot of chauvanism and macho negativity going on here though. I don't think a typical Indian woman has as many options as an American one. I'm not going to go into the uglier side of women's issues and crime here, but some tough stuff goes on and we see can read that in the paper without abbreviations.

Sigh. I guess I'm not sure I have a clear point here. I'm not trying to make broad comments about a culture, especially one I know so little about. Let me be clear: in two months, the most I've learned is that I have a lot to learn. I don't really understand anything. I guess I just feel like maybe the ninjas under their burkas are a typical part of Indian culture as well. And all that that represents.