Some basic middle school (early secondary school) science about the sex of a newborn and how blaming a woman for not “giving birth to a son” — the NORM in Nepal — is not only misguided but also cruel. IF either one of the two behind the “creation” were — WERE — to be “held responsible” for the newborn’s sex, it should be the man, NOT the woman.
But then, of course, in Nepal we live in a highly patriarchal Brahmanic society. As such, Nepali society endorses a belief system that values considerably more — and elevates — a son. Another characteristics of the society is a general and strong religion-driven belief in superstitions.
One of the many horrendous consequences of that is the following kinds of stories of suffering (see tweet below).
I swear,
— Dorje Gurung, ScD (h.c.) (@Dorje_sDooing) October 6, 2020
many fellow men in d country of #Nepal
should be hung by their balls!
I mean it!
Here’s one of d many MANY
reasons for why…& I am NOT talking
only abt d husband & father-in-law
of this woman with her beautiful baby girls.#GBV #discrimination https://t.co/ZEL9r4ure3
The above story is a heart-wrenching one. A young twenty-eight year old woman was subjected to a great deal of abuse by her husband and father-in-law for giving birth to three daughters. The abuse was so bad, this was her request to the police:
‘बरु मलाई यतै मारिदिनू तर घर जान नभन्नू । अब घर फर्किएर गएँ भने मेरा पतिले जिउँदो राख्दैनन् । त्यहाँ मर्नुभन्दा यतै मरे बेस ।’
(“I’d rather you kill me here than tell me to go home. If I go back home, my husband will not let me live. Better I die here than there.”)
And this is NOT the only story of females being abused for giving birth to only daughters. I have read others in Nepali papers since arriving in the country eight years ago.
The high level of religiosity also means that traditional cultural views and understandings of sex is limited to the physically visible genital a newborn is born with and, what’s more, only two are accepted or viewed as “normal”: male and female.
What determines the sex of a newborn, according to science, is a bit complex. At the risk of oversimplification, the visible genital a person is born with is determined to a large extent — but NOT entirely — by the combination of sex chromosomes: X and Y. Females have XX sex chromosomes and males have XY.
The combination of the chromosomes a newborn ends up with depends on the chromosomes carried by BOTH the egg and the sperm — the former coming from the female and the latter from the male. Each of the egg and sperm carry only one of the two — an X or a Y — chromosomes.
In seventh grade science I used to teach, we used Punnet Squares to determine all the combination of the sex chromosomes and the theoretical distribution of sexes (see image below). We then would go on to explain reality.
Notice, to begin with, there’s an equal chance of a fertilized egg carrying the chromosomes for either a male or a female. As a consequence, statistically, there’s a 50/50 chance a fertilized egg turns out to be one or the other.
To reinforce the MOST important bit from above for the benefit of Nepalis (and others) who blame the women for the sex of a newborn: chromosome Y, the MALE chromosome, comes from the sperm! So, if you want to blame something for the birth of a daughter, it should be the sperm NOT the egg! In other words, if you want to blame someone for the sex of a child (which I find unpalatable!), blame the man, NOT the woman!
The ease and the knee-jerk way Nepalis blame women (and make them suffer) for giving birth to girls instead of boys, is as if like sex WERE determined DURING gestation and/or IN THE ACT of birthing!
Again I am simplifying things a bit here but, to reiterate, sex is determined mostly at the time of conception. You might then ask, if the probability of a boy or girl is equal (50/50), why do some couples end up with all boys and another with just girls? Simple: chance, just random chance. That, as a matter of fact, is exactly the same as the results of flipping a coin.
If you were to flip a coin 1000x, there’ll be times when five or even ten or even more heads turn up in a row, or vice versa. If the first five flips represented sex of five children of a couple, and the next five those of another and so on, you should be able to appreciate how MANY couples can — and do — end up with children of just one sex or the other.
Something else that’s important to understand: just because all five children have been boys does NOT improve d chances of the next one being a girl, or vice versa. After five heads, the likelihood of the next flip turning up a tail (instead of a head) is still just 1 in 2 — 50%!
That is, trying again and again because you think or believe that every attempt “improves” your chance at getting a different sex child is nothing but wishful thinking and, worse, torment for the woman!
The result of any conception or any flip of the coin is independent of ALL the results preceding it. In other words, again, the sex of the last child born nor the sexes of all the children born before nor the female who conceives the baby do NOT in any way influence the sex of the next child. Religious superstition — such as that the woman is cursed — has nothing to do with producing children of only one sex! Chance does.
What does the fact that Punnet Square predicting a 50/50 split for sex of child mean then?
Well, it means that when the sample size is large, like a large community or a country, the split in the two sexes will be very close to even. In Nepal, the split, according to the 2011 census is 51:49 females to males. Were you to analyze the 1000 flips of a coin, you’ll find that the split between heads and tails is also very close to 50/50.
Of course, “interventions” can have a significant impact on that split. In parts of China and India for example, a long history of selective abortion practices have resulted in very skewed demographics — they have considerably higher percentage of males. From what I understand, selective abortion is also practiced in Nepal — by mostly the wealthy in urban areas, for obvious reasons in addition to them also valuing sons over daughters. (Wealth in Nepal does NOT appear to significantly impact people’s views of child discipline methods in the country either.)
According to 2011 Census Report, about three out of four of married females had been married (off) before they turned twenty — that is when they were still a child. What percentage of them — in addition to having to start life in a home filled with strangers who she would have had to serve day and night — were also tormented for “birthing a child or children of the wrong sex” even while the female themselves were still children? I am willing to bet a significantly high percentage.
Sadly, I have also noticed the very harmful consequences of the low level of science literacy and high religiosity in Nepal not just in how the females have been victimized — when it comes to sex of the child they give birth to or when it comes to menstruation etc. — but also in how we have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Severe lack of knowledge and understanding of what a virus is, what it does, how it operates, and how it changes (mutates) and evolves etc. is having a negative impact on how the State and the population is dealing with and reacting to the pandemic.
Fatalism, for instance, appear to dictate the behaviors of many.
Just a higher level of science literacy could promote and uplift the physical, emotional, and intellectual wellbeing of the population, at least that’s what I think.
What do you think?
References
Intersex, Women, Men and Nepal. Blog about the issues in Nepal with intersex and stigma associated with giving birth to them.
Form 3 (seventh grade) Science. If you are interested in learning more about seventh grade genetics, visit that page. It contains links to PowerPoint slides covering the basics.
The Silenced…Go Silently. Follow the link for more on why and how the patriarchal Brahmanic society of Nepal values sons more than daughters, and how that has also contributed to the biggest killer of reproductive age females being SUICIDE.
