On passports and partiarchy

I am struck by the wisdom behind this wonderful patriarchal move.

In a bid to curb cases of women getting duped or harassed in marriages to NRIs, the government is considering a proposal to make it mandatory for the husband’s passport number to be stamped on the wife’s passport.

The proposal has been made by the ministry of women and child development in the wake of a rise in complaints about women getting abandoned, harassed or cheated by their NRI husbands.

I am puzzled about why we choose to only stamp the women’s passports. Why not have a little ritual in the Regional Passport Office where the man and women together stamp each other’s passports? If you really want to ensure that men are tied to their women – it’s their passports that really need to be stamped no? For equality’s sake – we’ll do the same to women.

Actually, I have a better suggestion. Why don’t we just make it mandatory for women to be tattooed with husband’s name, address, passport number as they leave the country? So much more permanent. In fact, tattoo it across their foreheads.

Wtf.