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Georgi Genchev
SES 360B
March 30, 2015
Assignment 9
How Are Women Treated in Your Country?
The BBC four documentary Indias daughter is a story for a young woman, brutally
gang raped and murdered in the capital city of India- Delhi. Intertwined into the story are the
lives, values and mindsets of the rapists. The documentary also examines the society and values
which spawn such violent acts. The unspeakable details of this womans ritual humiliation belong
in another century, and yet they tell of a deeply ingrained culture of female repression in India.
The statistic shows that every twenty minutes a woman is raped in the second most populated
country on the planet.
In contrast women in my country are treated more or less equally to men. The culture in
Bulgaria dictates that men and women have equal rights and in most households the man does his
share and treats his other half with respect. On the whole, family is very important in the
Bulgarian culture. The macho chauvinistic behavior commonly seen in many Mediterranean
countries and other Eastern European nations, where women are allowed less freedom than their
male counterparts, tends not to be found in Bulgaria.
Of course, as everything else, this also has an exception. It was until the half of the 20th
century when the patriarchate was the dominating culture trait regarding the structure of the
family in Bulgaria. Women were expected to stay at home, care for the children, cook, clean and
everything else related to the day-to-day family needs. However, with the industrialization of the
country and the migration of the population from the rural areas to the cities gradually the

patriarchate was replaced by equality. Nowadays, only in the smallest mountain villages one can
find the traditional Bulgarian family where the mans word is a law and everyone else should
obey it.
Moreover, I would also claim that unlike the majority of western men, Bulgarians are
respectful to women and hold good manners in high regard, at least for this geographical region.
It is natural that acts of violence against women occur from time to time, especially in the poorer
households, but this is true for the whole world. It is a fact that the majority of Bulgarian men are
civilized and respect womens rights. Acts such as the tragedy in India is unthinkable and also
harshly judged by the whole community in my country.
To conclude with, contrary to the societal values which allow such violent acts to be
allowed in countries such as India, in Bulgaria, women are treated with respect and equality. Not
all of them take advantage of this, some decide to live the life of an easy woman, chalga star
etc. but this is a matter of another discussion.