Where are the Women?

While in Luang Nam Tha province, in northern Laos, Leah and I decided to try our hands at "eco-tourism" and so we marched into the first trekking operator we saw and signed ourselves up for a one day adventure in the Lao countryside. We followed our trusty guide Ong over hilly upland rice fields, across rivers and into tiny Akka ethnic group villages, so different from the Lao ethnic group villages that I am used to visiting that I might as well have been in a separate country.

For one thing, the language of the Akka people has a different rhythm and flow altogether from the Lao language which is becoming familiar to me and it was disorienting to once again be unable to communicate. And, while I have always admired Lao women for wearing their traditional clothing on many occasions, the Akka women take this one step further by wearing their unique traditional clothing at all times, even while going about household chores or working in the rice paddy. In addition to their reputation for going topless (I have never seen so many exposed breasts in all my life), Akka women are distinguishable by their elaborate woven headdresses dripping with silver pendants, charms and even colonial French Piastres.

The real story I want to tell, however, though it took place in an Akka village, could just have easily happened in any village in Laos it seems to me. As we leave our last village of the day, passing by the spirit gate which is said to keep out all things evil, we come across all the men in the village lounging in a clearing under the trees. They have butchered a pig to offer to the spirits in return for the health of a sick villager and now they are talking, smoking and drinking away the afternoon. "But where are the women?" I ask Ong. "Working in the fields", our guide explains, "women is working hard more than men". "And what do the men normally do?" I question further. "Drinking!" is Ong's concise and chuckling reply.

And it's very true that as you walk around a village in rural Laos, you are much more likely to see a women toiling in the fields or carrying heavy loads of firewood than you are to see a man doing equally labour intensive work. It's hard to know why that is. Beyond the obvious injustice, it might have to do with the fact that as the jungles (where men traditionally spent a lot of time hunting) disappear, so does traditional "men's work". I have no answers I'm afraid, and in fact as I learn to know this country a little bit better every day what I am left with is more and more questions.