She’s an author, entrepreneur, speaker, mother and a proud feminist. Canada-born Eliza Reid, married to the president of Iceland, Gudni Johannesson is also a First Lady. Unshackled by protocol, Reid who once famously asserted that she is not her husband’s handbag is out with her first book, Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s extraordinary women and how they are changing the world. Between attending Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London and flying off a day later to Toronto, I was able to speak to her at the presidential residence in Alfatanes, just outside Reykjavik, about her book, why she admires women who…

When Reena went into labour she was taken to the community health centre in rural Uttar Pradesh where she lives. By then she had begun to bleed and since the health centre didn’t have blood transfusion facilities, she was moved to a district hospital. Two hours later when she arrived at the hospital, she was bleeding profusely, her blood staining the floor. She was terrified she would lose her baby. Instead of empathy, she was yelled at for dirtying the floor. When she began to cry, the attending doctor scolded her and when she wouldn’t stop, a nurse slapped her.…

Source: letstalkconsent.com Most young adults know about the need for consent but struggle to negotiate it in their relationships, finds a recent survey by dating app Tinder. In fact, 70% of men said it was difficult for them to communicate effectively about consent, leaving partners in uncomfortable situations, found the survey of over 1,000 people aged 18-30 in seven cities. Some 65% of men and women said they struggled with asking for consent, giving it or withdrawing it when dating someone. Six in 10 said they would be unable to say no to a kiss or turn down an intimate advance even…

Same-sex couples and unmarried partners are entitled to legal protections and all the benefits available under social welfare legislation, noted a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court. Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said family can also take the form of ‘domestic, unmarried partnerships, or queer relationships’ while hearing a case on maternity leave benefits. It was while hearing this case that the judges noted, “Atypical manifestations of the family unit are equally deserving not only of protection under the law but also of the benefits available under social welfare legislation.” Later in the week, speaking at a public event Justice Chandrachud spoke of…

In an era where seven states have “love jihad” laws, marriage seems like an ambitious project. Just this week, a Dalit man and his Muslim girlfriend were killed in Uttar Pradesh In a country where 93% of urban Indians choose arranged marriages, the course of true love is not always smooth. (Unsplash) Tucked away in a safe house at an undisclosed destination in Delhi, “R” is teaching me about love. He’s the Hindu son of a farmer in love with a Muslim woman he met in Lucknow. In an era when interfaith romances are frowned upon and where seven states have…

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking at a conference of state labour ministers in New Delhi. “The future needs flexible workplaces, a work-from-home ecosystem and flexible work hours,” he said. These, he added, are “opportunities for women’s labour force participation.” To my mind, no prime minister has ever openly acknowledged India’s two-decade-old crisis in women’s employment. It’s a crisis that puts us barely ahead of Saudi Arabia in terms of the percentage of women who have jobs or are looking for work. Modi did not make a direct reference to what has been one of the world’s most rapid declines…

On India’s 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed on the need to support ‘nari shakti’ (women power) and called for a ‘change in the mentality’ towards women. Later that day, 11 men serving a life term after being convicted of gangraping and murdering 14 people in the 2002 Gujarat riots walked out of Godhra jail and went home. They were felicitated with sweets and garlanded. BJP legislator C.K. Raulji, one of the members of the panel that had unanimously ruled for the early release of the men, told Mojo Story the men are Brahmins and Brahmins have good sanskar (values). The Gujarat state’s remission policy allows for…

Source: BREAKTHROUGH In a week dominated by chatter around Netflix’s new release, Darlings, comes the sombre news of yet another woman dying by suicide on August 3 after eight years of marriage and unceasing domestic violence. “I kept thinking he’ll reform,” Mandeep Kaur says of her husband Ranjodhbeer Singh Sandhu in a video that has gone viral ever since she recorded it in Queens, New York just before dying of suicide. “He keeps getting drunk… has extra-marital affairs… and hits me,” the 30-year-old says in Punjabi. According to Jaspal Singh, Mandeep’s father, demands for dowry from Ranjodhbeer, a truck driver, and his family began soon…

Until she was found on Friday, Pooja Gaud was Girl Number 166 in the missing girls’ file at Mumbai’s Dadabhai Naoroji Nagar police station. Nearly 10 years ago, on January 22, 2013, she had disappeared while on her way to school. Just seven-years-old then, she had squabbled with her elder brother over the sharing of a Rs 10 note. While he ran into the school building, she stayed outside, sulking. That was the last time he saw her. The story made headlines when assistant sub inspector Rajendra Bhosale, who had just retired, told Indian Express’s Smitha Nair in 2015 that of the 166 missing…

When a handbag made news this past week, it would not be out of place to remember that sexist attitudes have not changed much since the Gandhi-Thatcher era. In her earlier avatar as an investment banker, Moitra would have been able to afford a designer bag, or three. But few things upset the patriarchy as much as the sight of an outspoken, independent woman.  In the male-dominated era of her politics, Indira Gandhi shunned overt signs of femininity, taking her handbag out only while traveling abroad. Margaret Thatcher, on the other hand, was seldom seen without it. Metaphorically, you could…

(Right, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and left, Droupadi Murmu) When Pratibha Patil was elected the first woman president of India in 2007, there was some discussion on whether the word rashtrapati could apply to a woman. Some felt that the word pati, literally a husband but also used in a larger sense of lord or head, was gendered. Would a more appropriate title for a woman president then be rashtrapatni? Fortunately, the offensive idea was tossed almost as soon as it was suggested. And Patil continued to be known as the rashtrapati throughout her tenure. Now, nearly 15 years later, with the…

It took a ruling by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court to finally allow an unmarried woman to have an abortion at 24 weeks. The 25-year-old woman conceived while she was in a live-in relationship. At 18 weeks, her partner abandoned her. At 23 weeks and five days pregnant, the woman approached the Delhi high court saying she was simply not mentally prepared to bring up the child on her own and to do so would cause her grave physical and mental harm. What followed was a paternalistic lecture: “Why are you killing the child?” the judges wanted to know, and then…