Every woman has a story, the man who ‘accidentally’ touches her in the metro, the schoolboys who chase her in the park for sport, the masturbating pervert late at night on the bus. We learn to ignore it – rule #1 of the street: never, ever make eye contact – but sometimes it spills over […]
December 16 gangrape: Five years on, why the streets don’t belong equally to women Read More »
Just picking up a musical instrument is an act of courage for Zohra, Afghanistan’s first all-woman orchestra. When the call came, she was home at Kunar for her holidays. Negin Khapalwak had just got admission into the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the only music school in her country. But there was a problem. The
Afghan ensemble Zohra is a reflection of the transformative power of music Read More »
Delhi’s well-off function as independent city-states with their own security, water filtration and supply, power back-ups and, now, air purifiers. Our kids don’t study in government schools, we don’t use public transport, we don’t seek treatment at government hospitals. With no stake in public services, we don’t demand better quality or, for that matter, any
We, the elite of India, are to blame for the state of our cities Read More »
In reinterpreting the meaning of consent in two recent cases, judges are creating a dangerous precedent: Future rapists can plead that their victims either didn’t say no, or didn’t say it strongly enough. Perhaps the judges forgot that good girls never say no and that we bring up our daughters to ‘adjust’ and never complain.
Treat women as independent adult agents, not as children Read More »
Among the dozen women extraordinary women awarded for transforming India is an amputee mountaineer, an acid attack survivor, an educator and India’s first blade runner. Before she left her village to catch a flight to Delhi, Sunita Kamble’s grandmother had some advice for her: Don’t talk to strangers, follow instructions and, above all, don’t wave
Women achievers open paths to achieve what was perceived as impossible Read More »
The fact that the battle was fought and won by determined Muslim women themselves should help alter the narrative of the singular stereotype – the shadowy figure behind the burqa, illiterate, dis-empowered and left to fend for herself. The Supreme Court judgment on triple talaq has achieved many things, but the one that has received
Triple talaq verdict: What empowerment of Muslim women really means Read More »
In the 70th year of our Independence, a new generation of women, unwilling to be victims, is speaking up and saying ‘enough’. The Chandigarh stalking has received more than usual attention, some of it because one of the two men accused, Vikas Barala, is the son of the state’s BJP chief. But much of it
Whether it’s Varnika Kundu or Gurmehar Kaur, the fightback from women has begun Read More »
In India, the intersection between morality and medicine can make a visit to the gynecologist harrowing for unmarried women. She panicked when she thought she might be pregnant. She couldn’t tell her parents; had heard horror stories about doctors. “I was too scared to even buy a DIY pregnancy kit,” says the unmarried, final year
Gynecologists are doctors, not nannies Read More »
Removing GST from sanitary napkins and menstrual hygiene products is only one of many issues we need to address when talking about menstruation. Hay, dried leaves, straw. Nature’s bounty? Hardly. These are just some of the innovative blotters used by many Indian girls and women who menstruate. That word itself; so troublesome, so awkward. Perhaps
Remove the cultural baggage, awkwardness about menstruation Read More »
Why does the five-man bench get to decide which of the three issues in the triple talaq case is more important than the others? When the history of Indian women is written, 2017 will go down as the year when the Plight of the Muslim Woman was uncovered. So grave is this plight that politicians
Why is triple talaq more important than nikaah halala and polygamy? Read More »
Speaking up has consequences and, so, in the din of divisive discourse that makes way for majoritarian force, the solitary voice is now hard to hear. I don’t know if you ever read Roger Rosenblatt’s essay in Time magazine in the early eighties: the air-crash over Washington, the rescue helicopter picking up survivors and, in
In an age of beef killings and human shields, speaking up is an act of courage Read More »
How the urban local bodies qualify as “customary” institutions is anybody’s guess. But in the past 16 years there has been no election to them. The women’s groups insist on reservation. But the tribal bodies remain adamant about not sharing power. Without reservation, women will simply not be given the opportunity to compete. For a
Who’s afraid of the Naga Mothers? Read More »