In India, according to a 2001 Census, over 34 million widows are living in social, economic and cultural deprivation resulting from laws derived from religious texts from over two thousand years ago. This includes young children who, by virtue of being betrothed to a man who dies, become widows before they even become brides. These women are unclean. Cast off. Disposable. Upon being widowed, they are given three options. Burn in a funeral pyre with their husbands, marry the younger brother of their husband, or take refuge in a "home" for widows where they are resigned to living a life of self denial and exile.
The movie Water tells this very story. This is such a powerful movie, I'm still processing everything I felt after seeing it. But I have a few initial thoughts.......
One of the most powerful quotes for me in this movie was simply, "This child is a widow". There is something terribly wrong with that truth.
There is a beautiful scene where the women, heads shaved and uniformly dressed in plain white cotton saris, celebrate the Festival of Colour by smearing themselves and each other with powders and dyes of the most brilliant orange and yellow and pink. Freedom has a scent. It has a sound. It also has a colour. Though short-lived, this was a moment of pure freedom and it reminded me that freedom is not a destination but a journey. Some moments are brief and unexpected, others hard-fought and lingering, all looking and sounding and smelling and tasting unique each time.
Captivity of any kind, in the name of religious tradition and rule, is always about something else. Economics. Politics. Protecting the status quo. Millions of women, living under patriarchy with no male to support them is too costly to any government. What other injustices are happening in our world, and are allowed to continue because the cost of addressing them is seemingly too great to those with the power to do so?
I feel like I have so many questions swirling around in my head. Everyone should go and see this movie, and then let your own questions surface. My eyes have been opened a little more because of it, and I'm grateful. But I'm also humbled at all that goes on in my world, in the lives of the women of this world that I know nothing about.
God help us.
I am hoping to see this movie too.
Posted by: stephanie | November 24, 2005 at 12:42 PM
Saw the discussion going on in the globalgirl pages and want to see this movie soon.
Several of my friends have been widowed this fall. Tragically early. Our society is kinder, but not very welcoming to widows. "I hope I won't get bitter," one of them said to me. She won't.
Thanks for a wonderful movie review.
Posted by: Connie Knighton | November 26, 2005 at 10:16 PM
i'm dying to see this film. my mom just saw it too. i'm hoping it will be released in the US.
p.s. i tagged you today.
Posted by: tonya | December 04, 2005 at 11:54 PM