Surnames

My name is Puja Subedi, and I am very attached to my surname “Subedi”.  My religion/tradition/customs demand of me (or every female) to change their surname upon marriage and take that of her husband. I don’t want to. Not only that, I also want my children (I know it’s kind of too early to be thinking about ‘my children’ but let’s just continue the story) to take my surname, even if it is as just a part of their name and not their surname. 
I have always wondered, and felt sad at the thought, “why the children take only the father’s surname? Why is it so that they take only the father’s lineage forward? Why is the mother forgotten? Why does the child not carry forward her name, her legacy when it was her who carried the child in her womb for 9 months suffering much distress and then gave birth with such immense pain? Why is it so everywhere in the world?” 

Today, after many years (I must say) of wondering and feelingsad about it, I have an answer that explains much, a satisfying answer and an amusing one.
Maybe this tradition of taking up only the father’s surname came in to show male dominance and female inferiority, but in it I found insecurity. You may or may not agree with what I am about to say, but you will think about it. 

Have you ever realized that a father’s claim over his children is only the surname? A mother gives birth; the world knows it’s her child without her having to say anything (which sometimes works to her disadvantage). But “who is the father?” and “how do we find out?”  
I have always hated jokes on woman infidelity, I always found it degrading, and how a woman doesn’t know who the father of her child is.
Today am smiling at the thought.

Do you realize how weak the claim of a man is over his child? The surname used to be the only way of knowing and/or telling the world that they are his children. 

So, males, you can keep the right of surnames, my claim over my children is goanna be much stronger than that. 

P.S. I end this with a big smile on my face (gloating).