Zubaan’s critical conversation, Feminist Travellers: Myth or Reality, was about women power and its role in politics. By Iknoor Kaur
What is feminismIJ Some say it’s a woman’s fancy to be like a man, some call it her desire for power, some believe it’s way of understanding the meaning of female existence and others describe it as the emancipation of women against suppression. Known as an American concept, feminism is an issue that travels the globe. “There are similar concerns approached differently,” said Urvashi Butalia during Zubaan’s critical conversation at Oxford Bookstore, Feminist Travellers: Myth or Reality, with Polish writers Olga Tokarczuk and Joanna Bator.
The conversation analysed if women had something in common in spite of their cultural, political and historical differences. Joanna elaborated, “I’m from a country where women are oppressed and as a child, feminism was always just this concept I knew about. Through my growing up years I used to often think that feminism is connected to power. But the fact was that everyone looked at power as manpower, so where did the woman fit inIJ It was only when I was older and interacted with people from other parts of the world that I realised power can have a female form and we don’t have to give up anything for it.” Olga added, “The answer to whether feminism travels across socio-political boundaries can never be black and white because it is not about being a feminist. It is about being open-minded and self-oriented where you feel like one big family where each individual needs to address ‘her’ issue in an appropriate way.”
According to Olga, other feminists from different parts of the world made her realise she was a feminist. “When I’m writing, I don’t think from a feminist point of view. It’s all intuitional. I didn’t even know my novels were feminist at first. When people asked me if I was feminist, I didn’t know. But then I interacted with people who were from different cultures, ethnicities and socio-political backgrounds and they made me realise that I was a feminist and so were they. It was just a feeling embedded in me which I put in my books. People in China relate to my books. This means that at the end of the day the language of feminism is the same everywhere,” she shared.
Olga feels that with feminism also comes political opinion and power. She said, “Being a feminist I naturally became a political writer because the problems with women are problems with the democracy.”
While it is true that feminists connect with each other all over the world, issues regarding it are aplenty. “When I went to Japan there were several discussions regarding this because feminism till date is considered to be an American idea and a lot of communities consider American culture to be profane,” said Joanna.