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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Representing Women in California Textbooks
Sacramento,
California, Mar 08, 2006: Representatives
of women’s groups and gender studies faculty held a press
conference this afternoon at the State Board of Education (SBE) to
commemorate International Women’s Day and to urge the Board to
adopt textbooks that accurately depict the history of women’s
struggle against oppression.
International Women’s Day was first celebrated on March 19, 1911,
in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland by over a million women
and men who rallied for women’s suffrage, women’s right to
hold office, work and vocational training, and equal workplace
treatment. In response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire shortly
thereafter, in which many young Jewish and Italian immigrant women lost
their lives, American observances of this day have often emphasized
women’s labor conditions. To these concerns, Russian women added
a commitment to peace and international solidarity by marking
International Women’s Day on the eve of World War I with anti-war
demonstrations. Over the following century, women continued to agitate
for gender equality, peaceful coexistence among nations, and the
creation of international standards and programs to improve the status
of girls and women globally. International Women’s Day continues
to be an important event in many parts of the world.
[The press conference at the State Board of Education, Mar 8, 2006]
Anu Mandavilli, a member of Friends of South Asia (FOSA), noted,
“Women have often taken to the streets to demand political
representation, economic justice, and social equality. But we have also
had to fight for the right to have these struggles represented in
history. I am pleased to join representatives of women’s groups
and faculty in demanding that history textbooks present truthful
information about the status of women in ancient India.”
Mandavilli was alluding to an ongoing controversy over the
recertification of sixth-grade history textbooks. Two Hindu Nationalist
Indian American groups, the Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu
Education Foundation (HEF), tried to alter the contents of textbooks
and have been accused by South Asian community groups of pushing
sectarian agendas. The VF and HEF claim that the textbooks portray
Hinduism stereotypically and, thus, will damage the self-esteem of
Hindu children. Among their recommendations to give a rosier view of
Hinduism, the VF and HEF advocated downplaying the oppression of women
in ancient India, along with deleting references to
“Dalits” (formerly known as “untouchable
groups”) in the texts.
California legislators voiced their concerns over the edits suggested
by the HEF and VF, particularly those regarding gender and caste.
Seventeen legislators, including members of the Assembly and Senate
Committees on Education, the Women’s Caucus, and the Asian
Pacific Islander Caucus, sent a letter to the SBE expressing their
dismay at the recommendation to alter the wording of a passage on
women’s rights. The original passage read, “Men had many
more rights than women. Unless there were no sons in a family, only a
man could inherit property. Only men could go to school or become
priests.” The proposed edit would substitute the following one:
“Men had different rights and duties than women. Women’s
education was mostly done at home.” Commenting on this passage,
the legislators warned against the dangers of revisionist history:
“These proposed edits stray from academic facts in order to
sanitize and oversimplify caste and gender inequalities in ancient and
present-day India.” The legislators asked the SBE to
“reject curriculum modifications that are not based on
historically accurate and objective scholarship, and that are not
religiously neutral.” Signatories to the letter included Assembly
members Sally Lieber, Lori Saldana, Loni Hancock, Carol Liu, Wilma
Chan, Karen Bass, Noreen Evans, Cindy Montenez, Barbara Matthews,
Alberto Torrico, and Senators Elaine Alquist, Sheila Kuehl, and Jackie
Speier. They were joined by the Co-Chairs of the API Caucus, Judy Chu
and Leland Yee, Vice-Chair of the Women’s Caucus, Patty Berg, and
Senate Majority Leader, Gloria Romero.
The legislators’ concerns over this edit have also been echoed by
faculty members who specialize in women’s studies. As Kasturi
Ray, a faculty member in the Gender and Women’s studies program
at UC, Berkeley, noted in her letter to the SBE, “This sentence
also equates difference with what were actually systematically-denied
duties and rights based on gender. With this sentence, we lose the
opportunity to understand what women really had to do (and continue to
do) to win equal duties and rights.” Angana Chatterji, an
Associate Professor of Anthropology at the California Institute of
Integral Studies, elaborated on the dangers of such changes in a letter
to the Board. “These revisions justify patriarchal dominance and
cultural nationalism in Indian history. Hindu sectarian groups in
present-day India construct a revisionist and supremacist history that
condones and glorifies a militant and misogynistic society. They
dismiss the deep social, economic, and political disenfranchisement of
women, Dalits, adivasis, and religious minorities, along with the
ongoing struggles for justice and self-determination of these
communities.” Similar reservations have been shared with the SBE
in letters by women’s studies faculty from several other states.
Rupal Oza, the Director of the Women’s Studies Program at CUNY,
observed, “It is important that school children learn about
imbalances in power among men and women if we are to understand
today’s society as well as to learn how much women have gained
rights through conscious and continuous struggle.”
In addition to faculty members, approximately fifteen other women
attended, representing groups such as FOSA, Coalition Against
Communalism, and the Global Fund for Women. Anjali Asrani, a member of
the Global Fund for Women, underscored the negative impact that the
proposed edits would have on children’s ability to comprehend the
present status of women. “The revisions make it difficult to
understand ongoing human rights violations against women based on
gender, caste, class, religion, and sexuality,” she explained.
“Allowing a sanitized version of women’s experience to
masquerade as truth is an injustice to schoolchildren and to those who
continue to be oppressed by the Hindutva movement.” Asrani
concluded, “The HEF’s and VF’s demands to sugarcoat
women’s oppression make a travesty out of International
Women’s Day.”
The SBE is slated to make its final decisions regarding textbook adoption at its meeting later this afternoon.
The
coalition issuing this press-release includes Friends of South Asia (FOSA), an
organization working toward a multicultural, pluralistic, and hate-free
South Asia, and Coalition Against Communalism (CAC), an Indian American
organization which promotes religious tolerance in the Indian diaspora.
For further information on this press release, please contact mail[at]friendsofsouthasia.org
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