India has made international news several times in recent years mainly for the growing international pressure calling for the Indian government to address gender inequality in the country. India is a patriarchal state where women have almost no voice. Many of its provinces still cling to the archaic tradition of treating women as nothing more than tools to be used by men. This backwards way of thinking is the main reason why rape and other forms of violence against women are very widespread in India. Honor killings where a man can get away with murder by acquiring forgiveness from the family of the woman he has killed still continue to occur. Last Wednesday night, an Indian woman made the news once more. This time, however, that woman was neither a victim of rape or honor killing. This time, that woman made the news for winning a medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
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India’s First at Rio
India was not having a good showing at the Rio Olympics. The sports where the Indian Olympic Team is considered to have had the highest chance of winning such as field hockey and rifle shooting were already over yet the team still had no medals to show for. Indians were starting to lose hope and some even began accepting the fact that the country might not bring home any medals this year. Fortunately for the people of India though, a pleasant surprise was waiting for them. The nation was shocked by news of their athlete, 23 year old Sakshi Malik, winning bronze in the 58 Kilogram Women’s Freestyle Wrestling Competition.
Known by a Mere Few
Malik, much like almost all female athletes in the country, only had a few supporters. Most of her countrymen didn’t even know about her. If the Indian people weren’t talking about their hopes, and eventually their disappointment regarding the field hockey team, they would be complaining about the officials who accompanied their athletes. Many complained that the officers were spending all their time touring Brazil and barely did anything to help the athletes.
The Olympic bronze is actually not Malik’s accomplishment as an international athlete. After all, she was wrestling ever since she was just 12 years old. She has already won bronze in the 2010 Junior World Championship and silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. In spite of these achievements, she was not even her country’s first choice. She was only given the spot after Geeta Phogat was unable to qualify.
What an Ironic First Medal
Malik being a woman in an extremely patriarchal country is not the only thing that makes this first medal ironic. Another irony is the fact that Malik is from Haryana, one of the bottom five Indian states when it comes to sex ratio. Haryana only has 88 women for every 100 men. This is because couples in the state prefer having a male offspring so many female fetuses end up getting aborted. Women wrestlers are also often ridiculed in India as many in the country view the sport as exclusive to men.
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