Importance of women

In Manusmrit it is said: “Women are worthy of worship. They are the fate of the household, the lamp of enlightenment for all in the household. They bring solace to the family and are an integral part of dharmic life. Even heaven is under the control of women. The gods reside in those households where women are worshipped and in households where women are slighted all efforts at improvement go in vain.” (Manusmriti 3-56). "It is hard to imagine that the same Manu who wrote this passage would write the passages denigrating women in other parts of the Manusmriti. Indeed, since it is supposed to guide the conduct of Hindu society the Manusmriti would be a natural candidate for distortion – by the pundits to serve their narrow selfish ends and by the colonial powers to denigrate Hindu culture and society. This practice continues to this day." * "The famous verse from one of the Hindu scriptures say, “Matru devo bhavah” – Revere your mother as God."** We see a lot of people showing respect to their mother, but still so many times they seem not to understand the importance of motherhood. They show respect to their mother, but if she is treated like a slave by their father's family, they will say it's ok, since it is their "culture". Actually, it is not rare to see no real respect... Besides, if a man, for example, really understands the importance of the mother and the motherhood, he will respect also the mother of his own children, otherwise, it is just a hypocrisy. The person who really respects his/her mother due to the understanding of her importance, will respect also all the other mothers and all the other women. It is also not difficult to find in India men who respect their mother and is ready to do anything for her and defend her rights, but they don't seem to have any problem in considering that their wife's mother don't have any of these same rights or just don’t have any rights at all, since for some people only the man's family matters. This way, the worshiping of mother and motherhood become just a way for man to reinforce the dominance of their own family using the so-called importance of their mother.

"It is important to note that when God is worshipped as ‘Divine Couple’ by Hindus, the name of the feminine typically precedes that of masculine. For instance, we say that we are worshipping ‘Sita-Ram’, ‘Radhe-Shyam’, ‘Uma-Mahesh’ or ‘Shri Vishnu’ and so on." ** In this case again, it doesn't seem that men are more important than women... Nowadays it is common to see hindu couples walking on the street, the man walking in the front and women walking after them, just like muslims. That is not practical for women’s protection and has no relation with the hindu culture. We even have descriptions of Parvati seated on Siva’s lap when he was giving darsan. In several other parts of the scriptures it is described some divine couple and we have the man and the woman coming side by side. And also in this exemple about the way we say the names of the divinities, the female comes first. So what’s the sense in a wife walking after her husband in the streets?
“The (…) VedAs (…) point out the important role of women in building a fair , stable and just scoiety ." *** Unfortunately, even that statement is so many times misused. We can listen to people saying that women are so good and strong, so superior to men, and that they have such an important role in keeping the family together, etc, that they have to tolarate everything!
"Satapatha BrahmaNA passage states unblushingly that only woman fulfills the purposes of human life. It extolls the divine aspect of women and declares that women are the embodiment of Sri Devi (SriyA vA yEthath rUpam yathA patnaya:). The modern women may not be familiar with the high status given to women in our religious world and its scriptures. Contrary to the popular belief that VedAs deny freedom to women , it stresses the underlying duty and THE RIGHTS of WOMEN , while focusing on the stability of the family as a unit , which then strengthens the society.(…)The Vedic obligations are recognized as SamAna (equally moving ) , since married men and women move freely in society in pursuit of their complimentary duties. (…)" ***

The Atharvaveda says: “O woman, you provide us wealth and prosperity. (Atharvaveda-Hindi Bhashya Part 1, Author: Kshemkarandas Trivedi, Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Delhi, Page 804)” **** “Like wise in so many other mantras a woman has been presented to play an essential role in family and as wife. Similarly she has been given the lead stage in society works, in governmental organizations, and for ruling the nation is also mentioned in Vedas. (Book: Vagambhraniya, Author: Dr Priyamvada Vedbharti)” ****
* - Raghbendra Jha - Women and the Vedas - http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_070503.htm

** Chinmay Bajekal - Vedism and modern ideals - http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050116.htm

*** SriPedia - http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/cgi-bin/kbase/Vedas/Women’

**** Agniveer – Women in Vedas - http://agniveer.com/vedas/women-in-vedas/