Restrictions/dresscode to some married Indian women - very unfortunate

Jeans and t-shirts are not our culture..dhoti kurta is our culture.When men don't have restrictions then why for women??Where in the world did you see westerners preferring sarees to jeans??
Culture is good..but only to a certain extent..when it starts to suffocate you everyday every second then what??

 

Uh, no.

Have you ever tried to function in a saree? I'm guessing not, since you're a man. But, speaking as a westerner, when you grow up wearing jeans, a saree is NOT that easy to learn how to wear!

When I was first married, I tried to abide by the admonition to wear sarees, because I think they're beautiful. But trying to do laundry, take care of kids, cook, wash dishes, drive, or anything else that required movement at all while wearing them was difficult, because I kept having to readjust the pleats at my shoulder, or push the pleats at the skirt out of my way. I went back to my regular jeans in short order and saved the sarees for special occasions.

 

The only time I wore a saree was for my wedding and dear god! I even had trouble getting into the car after the function! My legs got tangled in all those pleats and underskirt.. ufff..

 

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But would it not the jeans, in hot climates/summer, that would be suffocating ?

For us guys, we like to go around dressed in the latest fashion, cuz we need to impress you girls..

Also, we live in a male dominated society.. so you are not supposed to question the males

 

Super late to this thread, but only reading this just now. I admire your stance and courage to do what you are comfortable with. Although I grew up in the US from age 6, I would be okay with half of the rules you mentioned (no to shorts, for example, as I never wear shorts anyway although I used to as a kid and in early adulthood for few years; as for western wear, well, I do wear that often as I am in the US but my style is relatively conservative - never sleeveless/low-cut/see-through, no tight tops/bottoms, nothing knee-length or shorter, etc, so I am okay with certain restrictions on that too). I'd also be okay with learning their cooking, although I believe its important for DH to also know how to do domestic chores. But that's just my own take.

As for this: "Restriction by MIL:staying alone during theetu(periods)" - I would rebel against this rule very much if I was asked to follow it too, as like you, I also do not believe in restrictions during that time of the month (after all it is a natural God-given process without which we cannot give birth and we do have ways to keep ourselves clean and reasonably comfortable and pain-free during that time, plus we have to still go to office and do work so the question of staying alone should not even arise); thankfully my MIL is not that extreme on this although being rather traditional, she does enforce avoiding puja area/temples/religious activities during that time, but I can still move around in the rest of the house/outside without restrictions there. I once argued and tried to reason with her when she mentioned, on her own, that during that time of the month, I should not light the puja lamp in our (my husband's and my) altar in our own apartment or do prayers when her and my father-in-law were visiting and staying with us for two months. That being said I still generally avoid temples and major religious functions during that time, only because there are priests and others present who believe in avoiding during that time. Only exceptions I make are if there just happens to be bad timing during a mandatory event I am expected to attend, but this is very rare if ever and I have usually managed to pre-pone/post-pone via medication (with extra pain once it returns ).