The Tribune

By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett

SUCH insightful statements descend from the House of Assembly! According to parliamentarians, women will sell their citizenship. So, how do the women in Parliament feel about being Jezebels who know no control over their minds or their bodies?

It is interesting that they should see making laws that allow women to enjoy similar rights to men as being a sale of citizenship. Is it not funny that in a country that sold people the right to live for a mere $250,000 members of Parliament should respond that “our citizenship is not for sale”?

Why is it that the authorities see women as weak elements and therefore willing to sell their citizenship to people who, we are to understand, are not worth having in the country? Does women having equal rights under the law mean that they suddenly become a risk factor for destroying the country?

It seems that the politicians are scaring the public into thinking that as soon as women have a few more rights they will no longer want to marry Bahamian men; they will suddenly become unreasonable, untrustworthy people who are out to destroy the Bahamas.

At the same time, we are happy to create gated communities where most Bahamians are simply not welcome.

Security will see to it that we are not given access, and when we are allowed in we are usually made to feel as if we are visitors and should be thankful for the treat to enter the sacred space. These are areas where people have bought their right to reside. They create worlds that are closed to the rest of the population, but we don’t mind that. We choose to believe that women should remain unequal to avoid more foreigners coming in.

Citizenship for sale is apparently different from permanent residency for sale.

Think, who is the most powerful mogul in the country who has decided that he is the saviour of the people? His ability to buy status outweighs all the local people’s right to own land. Yet we choose to believe that women passing on their citizenship well destroy the moral fabric of the country.

Why do politicians feel that they can sell residence and then cast dispersions on all women as being weaker vessels who will sell their vows? Men are equally as able to sell their status as are women.

To date, it has been incredibly challenging for women married to be Bahamian men to get status in the country, yet someone who buys land and has absolutely no allegiance to the country except to own a part-time paradise get away from the chaos of the overdeveloped world outside, we seem to have no problem with this! In fact we embrace this.

Why do ministers think they can get away with dismissing women in the country as weak, unthinking and gullible vessels?

Why do women allow them to do so? These tactics seem to be nothing more than scaremongering, but when we listen to the radio airwaves, people believe them.

Do women fundamentally believe that they should not be able to pass on their citizenship because they will sell it to all and sundry? Are women that inferior to men?

How is it that so many women run the society, yet refuse to be full citizens?

Are the same inconstant women the politicians talk about their mothers, sisters, daughters? Or are we talking about different groups of women and so different treatment?

Whatever the idea these politicians have, they seem to be justifying discrimination. Is society going to allow this kind of discussion to go unchecked and then vote according to the misinformation? How can we argue that women are the pillars of our society, celebrate them on Mother’s Day, name Cynthia Pratt as the mother of the country, yet dismiss them as inferior and undeserving of holding and passing on rights? One time ago blacks were not allowed to hold citizenship, do we still believe that?

Come on folks, the Dark Ages were meant to have met with the Enlightenment. Let’s start talking like enlightened beings and not throw-backs to a time when a woman could be thrown over a cliff and killed for displeasing her husband. We constantly sing about living in the sunshine when people die, why can we not live in the sunshine in life?