‘Why is your wife at home when you are championing women's rights in public?’

Male leaders of organisations or Asian male politicians up and down will vociferously endorse equality and female leadership-as long as it's someone else's wife or someone else's daughter.

All you Asian men condoning female empowerment, let me ask you a simple question, why is your wife at home when you are championing women's rights in public?

It's the biggest fallacy yet the easiest cause to embrace as all it requires are a few sincere soundbites and rallying the efforts of women who are not part of your personal domain.

If charity begins at home, so does change. If you truly want female empowerment, then involve your wife in the cause.

But the problem therein lies with the disingenuous sentiments behind the cause.

They will 'support' egalitarianism because it makes them look good. Not because they believe it.

One woman I spoke to told me of her frustration at her own husband's double standards when it comes to women's rights.

"My husband is heavily involved in the local community. He very often speaks about equality and that women should get involved in community activities and leadership roles.

"But when I asked to come with him to his meetings, he said no, that his wife should be seen as a respectful entity because of his own role and that it if I speak up it could have a negative impact on his own image.

"He says my role is to support him by running the house smoothly and looking after the kids.

"It angers me because he is just being a hypocrite but I can't do anything to change him."

How many times have we been to Asian events and the room is full of middle-aged men? Even worse, these men are then discussing ‘women’s issues’!

Don’t tell me that this is in our culture. You are more likely to find a leading female politician in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh than you are in the UK.

And we can’t say this will change through generations. It won’t, because women themselves feel put off getting involved with such causes and many Asian men ensure their own house is well out of bounds.

Politics is still the most divisive place. Election campaigns are all male centric. Even when there is a female candidate she will more than likely find herself surrounded by the familiar male groups.

Female equality is something we like to talk about but rarely do we put it into practice.

This has nothing to do with religion and men folk wanting to impose a level of segregation. It has more to do with us wanting to keep our own immediate family members out of bounds because we sense that in some way we will be less respected.

But it doesn't change the hypocrisy of it all does it?

I have been to some meetings and men have sat around asking themselves why there should be more Asian women councillors or more women in leadership roles. One looks around and asks where are your wives and sisters?