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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

India Embassy traces journey of Indian women through the ages

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MUSCAT: As part of its year-long celebration of 70 years of Independence of India, which commenced in August 2017 and concludes in August, the Indian Embassy, Muscat, organised a cultural show to present ‘Glimpses of Indian Women Through the Ages’ at the embassy’s premises on May 13, which was attended by 120 prominent Omani women, women from diplomatic corps and Indian and other expatriate communities.


The cultural show was organised by Sushma Pandey, wife of Ambassador of India, in collaboration with a number of accomplished women from the Indian community, led by Madhulika Gupta and Seema Choudhery, who worked imaginatively and tirelessly to present the mesmerising show.  Sushma said that in India, with a large population of 1.3 billion, it is natural that there are divergences in the status of women which may vary from family to family, region to region and one strata of the society to other. This is true as much now as it was during the ancient and medieval periods.


Even during the medieval period, countless women played leading roles in battlefields, governance, politics, and social and economic activities. This was highlighted through presentations on lives and achievements of a few accomplished women like Razia Sultan, Ahilya Bai Holkar, Rani Rudrama Devi, Mira Bai, Joymoti and Rani Laxmi Bai, who carved a name for themselves in the Indian history. These presentations were accompanied by music and dances from the regions to which they belonged.


Sushma underlined the fact that the Indian government has taken a number of steps to ensure that women enjoy a status equal to men and there is no discrimination on the ground of gender. She spoke in particular about the government’s flagship Scheme ‘Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao’ ‘Educate your daughter, protect your daughter’, stressing that empowering a girl not only empowers a family and the society at large, but also the nation and the world. She noted that the equal status of women today in India is self-evident in fact that both the Foreign Minister and Defence Minister of India are women. She stressed that India has, since her independence, experienced revolutionary changes in social, religious, cultural, political and economic spheres and the Indian society has overwhelmingly accepted and assimilated these changes though, as natural, there are pockets of resistance; they are exceptions, not norms.


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