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Law impinges upon our lives in the most mundane of
circumstances and seals the boundaries of our lives.
We cannot opt out of legal paradigms. Law is not
simply a choice that we exercise at times of duress,
but it is an occurrence of our daily life, both in
its visible form and in its invisible but omnipotent
presence. Legal battles and campaigns for law reform
have been a significant hallmark of social
movements. Conversely, law has also proved to be a
double edged weapon. Its oppressive structures
served as a catalyst to social movements which
challenged them. But ironically law also appeared to
provide the solutions to the oppressed classes. The
challenge confronting social activists today is to
come to terms with the fact that law is power. In
order to bring marginalized people into the orbit of
the power of law, one needs to raise certain basic
questions and grapple with certain ground realities.
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For women, the rights discourse must forge into
unmapped terrain of their gendered lives. It must
enter the private domain, questioning intimate
experiences of sexual violations, patriarchal
control, female desire and the right to make
choices. At each stage, there must be a deeper
analysis of the patriarchal and class biases
inherent in state structures which get co-opted
within the patriarchal parameters of power and
control of the state. The movement must spread to
smaller cities and rural areas and break down
boundaries of the private and the public, the shame
and stigma attached to sexual experiences and to
that extent liberate women.
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Link:
State, Gender and the Rhetoric of Law Reform
(Introduction) |
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