For the past few months I have been carefully watching the serial Siya Ke Ram . Here, the age-old story of the Ramayana is retold from Sita’s point of view, and the telling offers an interesting balance of the requirements of a prime time soap, with all its costume and set design finery, and the introduction of a gentle feminism. Everywhere there are women, they talk, question, battle, stand in solidarity, remind the men that there are ‘other’ ways of functioning, and in a sleight-of-hand kind of way, they always live within the bounds of patriarchy.

At this moment in time, Ram and his army of vanars are in the thick of battle, and Ravan and his motley collection of asuras are using every trick in the book to defeat what they consider is a ragtag army of two sanyasis and a bunch of monkeys.

As the men fight, Sita continues to pray, the flame of her diya steadfast and true. You cannot escape the fact that this is a battle being fought over a woman. True, it is the battle for dharma, but also true that at the heart of it there is a woman.

Sita’s haran is on everyone’s lips. Ravan refers to it when he visits her in the Ashok Vatika, threatening to take her by force, make her his queen. Laxman speaks of the haran of his ‘ ma-samaan bhabhi ’with anger and in the spirit of revenge. Ram anguishes about it. Sex is nowhere explicitly mentioned, but it is everywhere in the air for it is clear that this is what Ravan wishes to do to her.

Sita herself is calm and constant, she knows Ram will come, she has faith and trust. Throughout she remains a good woman, a good wife, convinced that the just battle will be won. Indeed, this is the condition that allows the men to do battle for her. Had it been otherwise, there would have been no crossing of oceans for her sake.

As I watch the serial, I multi-task, as all of us do these days. I’m reading an open letter, one filled with cold anger and despair, by hundreds of Pakistani feminists, which talks of the murder of Qandeel Baloch, a Pakistani actor, feminist, someone who had the courage to question patriarchy by lampooning politicians, sports stars, the clergy. And someone who was open, sexual, irreverent, independent — all the things women are not supposed to be. Qandeel was killed by her brother Waseem on July 15.

The signatories to the letter hold the media responsible for the way in which it dealt with Qandeel and contributed to her death. They hold the state responsible for refusing to provide her protection, even when she asked for it. They hold the clergy responsible, for it was a senior cleric who allowed her to take selfies with him, and when those went viral on social media, embarrassing him, joined the campaign against her.

It is not surprising though that these loyal and resilient arms of patriarchy, the media, the state, religion, and indeed the family, were complicit in killing Qandeel — and it’s a foregone conclusion that they will all get away with it.

But what’s the logic of yoking Qandeel and Sita together? After all, one is a ‘good’ woman, the other clearly ‘bad’. This is why one merits protection (although the protection is only temporary, for we know she will be rejected after), the other death.

I can’t help wondering: what would have happened if there had been another scenario in Sita’s story. In the serial, Sita understands Ravan’s intelligence, his capabilities, she tries to alert him to what he is losing by being the obsessive megalomaniac he is. What if her wisdom had prevailed and they had become friends, conversationalists? Would the rescue operation still have gone through?

We’ll probably never know. But we can take an educated guess and the answer would probably have to be no — although, had this happened many lives would have been saved, and a war would have been prevented.

But in the scheme of things, these are not such heavy costs to pay for protecting that precious thing, male honour. And that’s the connection between our two very different stories from very different times. Centuries may have passed, but men continue to be ready to kill, maim, battle in order to save their honour. It’s a fragile thing, this honour, and a key condition to maintaining it is that women toe the line, and stay within the confines of patriarchy.

But also, as both stories show, no matter in which age the women are located, it’s no longer so easy to presume they will toe the line. Sita makes her own rebellion, as did Qa0ndeel. In their open letter, the Pakistani feminists speak of this as they pay tribute to their murdered sister: “We bury Qandeel Baloch alongside 16-year-old Ambreen burned to death in Abbottabad… We bury our sister and comrade Qandeel Baloch alongside thousands of our sisters who have been murdered to protect misogyny, patriarchy and male fragility.”

Urvashi Butaliais an editor, publisher and director of Zubaan; blink@thehindu.co.in

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