LookAtVietnam – The door shuts with a bang that makes everyone in the theatre jump. A woman walks away, leaving her husband and three little children in the home. Where will she go? What will she do? How will she live alone?

Le Khanh played Nora in the play ’A Doll’s House’. (Photo: TP)

It was written more than 100 years ago, but it is still relevant today, particularly in Viet Nam, where gender inequality still exists at all levels of society.

A recent survey of eight cities and provinces in Viet Nam showed in 2.3 per cent of families husbands beat their wives, in 25 per cent of families they abused alcohol and in 30 per cent of families there was sexual abuse.

Society’s debt

In the play, Nora gets married and loves and worships her husband.

He gets a serious illness, however, and Nora decides to earn money any way she can to rescue him from the jaws of death, even forging her father’s signature to borrow money.

Her husband survives and grows strong again, advancing in his career, while his wife is left to secretly repay the debt, trying her best to protect her husband’s pride.

The knowledge of the debt gets back to her husband, however, and instead of praising her for helping him, he condemns her as crafty, dishonest and irresponsible.

Faced with shame and loss of trust of her husband, not to mention her own self-esteem, Nora decides to leave home and in doing so becomes a harbinger of a movement for women’s equality that still has a long way to run.

In Viet Nam, a downtrodden Nora lives in many families in which she faces three subjections - a daughter to her father, a wife to her husband and a widow to her son - and the four virtues of the ideal woman: contribution, appearance, speech and behaviour.

Le Khanh, who played Nora, says she feels great sympathy for the Vietnamese Noras who, in pursuit of the often illusory happiness, have sacrificed their true selves.

“Finding who she is or who she is not – it is an internal struggle,” says Khanh “Nora is the progress of the women’s instinct.”

However, the character of Nora is widely seen as an advocate, not only for women’s rights but also for their contributions to society.

As Nora says in the play: “Before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are.”

Norwegian Ambassador Kjell Storlokken says playwright Ibsen highlights the way women are repressed by rigid gender roles, defined by the conventions of marriage and society at large.

“Ibsen’s plays have challenged conventions for more than a century,” Storlokken says. “He does not address government policy or suggest specific measures that should be taken. Instead, he raises fundamental questions about human relationship, social conditions and the dilemmas facing women and men alike.”

“Nora ventures out into the world and her tenacity gave rise to a revolution,” he says. “She demands equal rights, the right to work, equal pay, reproductive rights, the right to be free of gender-based violence, the right to own and inherit property, her rightful place at the decision-makers’ table.”

More than a century since Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House, and despite tireless work in developing and implementing national legislation and international conventions for ensuring women’s rights, women have not yet come far enough.

All over the world, they are still disadvantaged in almost all aspects of life. Almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate are women. Girls are much less likely to get an education than boys. Women are increasingly the victims in war and conflict.

“They are also victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking,” Storlokken says.

Stage to life

In Viet Nam there are many Noras. One is Le Thi Oanh (not her real name) who stood up for her rights against her abusive husband and dominating in-laws.

Oanh was born in Ha Noi. She married and gave birth to a son and their living conditions were quite good until Oanh quit her job in order to capitalise on the severance pay as a deposit on a house.

“At the time, my husband and I lived in my parents’ house but my husband felt ashamed,” says Oanh. “I began to make votive objects to earn money for the family. I never received anything from my husband.”

Matters got worse when the husband brought his four siblings from a local province to live in the house and Oanh was required to feed them.

Oanh was exhausted. Her husband’s sisters and brothers critcised her for not caring enough and her husband began to abuse her and beat her. “I took his scolding and blows for eight years until one day he scolded my parents and made me realise he had no respect for us.

“I decided to get a divorce, it was the only solution.”

By that time they had a two-month-old daughter and their son was eight. They separated and the son and daughter lived with Oanh, but before long the husband missed his son so much he moved back in with his wife.

“I did not want my children to live without a father so I forgave him.”

But the husband came on Oanh’s terms. He was forced to change.

“He has learned how to control his temper by leaving the house when we have a difference of opinion; he does not beat me anymore though he sometimes scolds me, but it is better than before.”

At that time, Oanh met members of the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents in Ha Noi.

She learned much about the women’s rights and how to protect herself in case of disagreement with her husband.

Today, Oanh is one of their key members and shares experiences and gives advice to women in the same plight.

Gender equality director Nguyen Ngoc Tien, of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, says the gender gap in education had been narrowed in recent years thanks to a legal system. But there is still abuse of women at all levels of society, despite the country’s Gender Equality Law, he says.

“To bring us closer to equality, the legal system needs to be strengthened and enforced,” he says. “A strategy and development plan must be developed and a focus has to be put on education and debate on gender equality.”

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News