Does the subaltern have rights?

As Gayatri Chakavorty Spivak imposed the question on whether the subaltern have the right to speak, I believe that the subaltern have the right to speak; they are able to air out their complaints through the higher classes. For me, the question should be rephrased with “Are the subaltern represented” to dwell deeper into the argument.
Starting off, we should understand that the subaltern Spivak is talking about here refers to not just the oppressed or the proletariat class, but instead she refers to everything in general that has limited or no access to cultural imperialism, which is not being part of a majority culture.
But to understand Spivak’s subaltern definition would need to be carefully dissected and analyzed as the subaltern is often being misused or misdefined by many people. In the context of what Spivak wants to point out about the subaltern, we will focus on the subaltern as not being addressed within the space of difference.
To start things off, let us analyze cases of subalternity that is happening within the world. First case in point: Orientalism. Edward Said explained in his book Orientalism that the rise of Orientalism is an effect of the heavy criticism of the west, or the Occidental, of the works made by the east, or known as the Oriental. In his argument, he explains that it is not because the works of the oriental is classified to be weaker and inferior to that of the Occident that would mean the Occident is considered to be superior over the Orient. Instead, Said elaborates that this is how the Orient is represented in the perspective of the Orient. Although the scope of Said’s study covers mostly the Arab countries, his conclusion on the Orient being inferior to the Occident. In understanding Orientalism, Said then pointed out that what is needed is a proper representation of the Orient countries from the perspective of the West, giving them an opportunity to air out their voices towards the West, and for the West to respond to them. To make things clear, the problem with Orientalism, as Said further explained, is not because of sheer discrimination, but it is more of a lack of representation that gives us our present notion on anything that is made within the Orient sphere. In fact, I would say that there are indeed works from the Orient that are much better than the Occident, such as the fact that the people who founded algebra was not from the West (the Occident), but the Orient (the east), and that person who founded it comes from the middle east.
Second case in point: colonized countries. One of the very observable things and characteristics on colonized countries is that through the domination of their colonizer to them, the colonized loses their representation as an independent state. Instead of being able to be heard and represented, what happens is that their representation becomes dependent to that of its colonizer.Hence, the colonized, through being controlled by its colonizer, loses its right to be heard by the public. Culture-wise, the domination of the colonizer, in one way or another, distorts the culture of the colonized as it infuses its values into the values of the colonized, of which the Philippines is a good example of it. After the Spaniards and Americans have colonized us, we have been greatly influenced by their values such that because of the effects of colonialism to our country, we tend to forget our original Filipino values and instead dwell more on the Western culture, such as TV shows like Gossip Girl, fashion, and music. As these continue to affect the colonized, the eventual outcome will be the loss of the identity of the colonized as it makes its identity related to that of the colonizer.
Third case in point: gender indifference. Feminism has pointed out the problem with society between the two genders, wherein it has been observed that the female gender has often been repressed by its limitation to contribute to society, such as in being leaders, in voting for elections, in educational attainment, and the like. In addition, a result of this is the lack of representation of the women from performing significant roles in society, and it is through Feminist theories that they were able to address the importance of the female gender in society, giving them the opportunity to speak, be heard, and represent along with the male gender. Although women representation is not fulfilled in all parts of the world, just as Spivak describes the Bengali woman in her work “Can the Subaltern speak?”.
Giving in consideration of these three related cases, I would say that the Subaltern should be given rights to be heard and represented, even if Spivak concluded that the subaltern cannot speak at all. Just like every human person, I believe that every person, even the poorest and the most oppressed, should have a voice and be represented into society. That way, they also get to establish their identity in society as they make themselves represented and heard by others.