Assalamu Alaikum Ya Nesan!

Sri Lanka stands accused of discrimination against women when purchasing alcohol. Women’s rights people are up in arms about this, and demand that women too be given the opportunity at alcoholism, liver disease and life ruining addiction. Just as much as this issue is one of gender equality, it is also one of women versus women’s right groups, as a clash of perspective ensues.

The common women, who make up the majority of the nation, have always seen the ban on women purchasing alcohol a privilege, as something that makes them special and protected. “We don’t care what the men are doing, arrakku is not for us …” says Kusumalatha with obvious pride at the sanity of women. Actress Ruwanthi Mangala who is planning on contesting in the Kaduwela Electorate adds “I know there are many so-called women’s organizations that are fighting against the ban. But, we have to understand that there are do’s for women and at the same time there are also limits and don’t s” during an interview with a local newspaper. As the debate on legalizing alcohol purchase for women continues, the blessed mothers of this land are making a poignant realization, that instead of men telling them what to do, Women’s rights organizations will tell them what to do. And in this case these organizations are telling women that if the men are jumping into the well, women also must jump into the well.

Women have long sort for independence from the corrosive and self-destructive behavior of men, with laws that cater to them and their sensibilities. The fact that Women’s rights organizations are the very ones standing in their way has served to infuriate them. “When they say they are giving us a voice, they are actually putting words into our mouths …” says Chooti Saracen’s school teacher with obvious disgust, “… now we will have to deal with school girls ruining their lives with this, like as if there aren’t enough ways already”. And that is how the cookie crumbles.

President Maithripala Sirisena was swift in appeasing the masses by reinstating the ban as soon as he could. Home grown women’s organizations have largely been silent about this, as they remain bogged down by more pressing issues like giving women better access to water, and alleviating the epidemic of kidney disease among women in the country. And Ibn Serendib is pretty certain, adding liver disease to the pile of women’s woes in the last thing they want.

As this problem is something that barely concerns the Saracen, Ibn Serendib is reserved in his opinion, and happy to allow our sister communities that are more invested in this issue to sort things out. It’s not like the Saracen don’t have other more pressing issues. But this incident does highlight the inadequacies of  gender equality, as Allah himself makes mention in the Quran in Surah Al-Imran verse 36 “ … And the male is not like the female …”.