On 28th March 1995, at precisely 9.42 AM in the Mother & Child Hospital, New Delhi a child was born to the most amazing mother it will go on to ever know. It was the prettiest, sweetest and the most perfect child its parents had ever seen. Its father was so overjoyed that he gifted boxes of sweets to everybody …
Category: Blog
Commemorating International Women’s Day on Twitter
To honour International Women’s Day (#IWD2015), we wanted to reflect on the powerful voices and movements speaking up on Twitter for women’s rights. Day in and day out across the platform, there are active conversations about a variety of women’s issues. Some of these exchanges emerge in response to global events; others originate on Twitter and inspire concrete actions. https://blog.twitter.com/2015/commemorating-international-women-s-day-on-twitter-in
The Many ‘Missing Voices’ in “India’s Daughter”
One film came and controversy arose. The furore over India’s Daughter, a documentary based on the December 2012 Delhi gang rape has been a subject of discussion over the past few weeks. Not just the content of the film, but issues like a ban on its broadcast have resulted in the documentary being discussed by people in India and across …
Safety Tips for Women Who live Alone
As more and more women choose to explore the world and live their lives on their own terms, a major concern for them is safety. Today an increasing number of women are living by themselves. They may be students or working women or there may be many other reasons for the same.In the more technologically advanced world of today, there …
Mocking their Own Sensibilities: What Were Popular Female Actors Doing to Themselves Last Year?
In an outlandish scene in a treacherously banal film called Happy New Year released last year, lead actress Deepika Padukone listens naively awestruck as her co-star, popular Hindi film actor Shah Rukh Khan, taking advantage of her limited knowledge of the English language, makes vulgar comments any woman would be outraged at. Padukone who interestingly made headlines last year for …
Where the Mind is Without Fear
In 2012, I was visiting my family in Kolkata when I heard about the brutal gang rape of a young woman in Delhi. The fear and disgust is still fresh on my mind. It has been two years since that day but news related to sexual violence against women are unabated. Take for example, the recent case of a 25-year-old girl …
Does Woman Mean “Woe-Men” in India?
The janitor in her school raped a good friend of mine when she was less than 8-years-old. She was in the girls’ toilet, all by herself, when this heinous crime occurred. When she came home and told her parents about the violence, most of which she couldn’t comprehend, her doctor father conducted a finger test to ensure whether or not …
Women in Pakistan – Breaking Barriers and Creating Their Own Destinies
Women in Pakistan are now coming out of their houses to study and work. Their perceptions toward education and literacy have changed remarkably over the last decade. You all have probably heard about Mala Yousufzai bringing home the Nobel Peace prize for Pakistan. This coveted award has not only added fuel to the present drive coming about amongst teenagers and …
Mary Kom’s Story Shows How Men Too Can Champion the Cause of Feminism
The inspirational story of Mary Kom, India’s champion boxer, is now on the silver screen with Priyanka Chopra playing the role of real-life Mary Kom. Such films can be one way of popularizing sports other than cricket in the country since audiences would always be curious to watch the life-struggles of these personalities and seek inspiration from them. The widespread …
Undermining Women and their Sensibilities – Adultery in Hindi Cinema
In an industry progressively endorsing its belief in the equality of the two sexes, it is interesting to see Hindi cinema’s age old and often naïve and stereotypical take on adultery. Primarily, it often seems that we refuse to accept that it is not just the men who may find the grass greener on the other side. Women may also …