Gender equality in the desh

As I mentioned on my previous post, my father was here in Dhaka for a week on a combined work-visit daughter trip. We had a great time and it was wonderful that he got to see 'my current desh' and meet my friends before I leave in a couple of months. However, one aspect of his trip that has left a deep impression on me is the striking gender difference I witnessed in spending time travelling around Dhaka city with him. My friends and I have often joked about the 'food chain' in Bangladesh, where a white man is top of the chain and a white woman is the bottom, but I had never felt it to such an extent as I did this weekend. Where ever we went my father was treated with the outmost respect and it was 'sir this' and 'boss that'. When we parked the car, the guards would run to open his door although I was the one driving! Suddenly in all my usual shops and hangouts I was 'important'. Even in Jatra, where in the past I have had to complain and shout at the staff, we were served in an instant. I stood back in all these places and smiled, there is so much this country had achieved recently from some people's claims that they narrowly avoided anarchy in January, to the growth of industry and the female labour force, but there is still so far to go.
So take a moment for us ‘white’ women here in the desh, and for all women here and everywhere and the constant struggle to change the status quo!