Empowering Women Against Violence
Gender gap starts young. 38% of girls (aged 12-19 years) surveyed believed they would be less likely than boys to pursue STEM A few days ago, India woke up to a doodle by Google of a woman. She wore a traditional sari and held a degree in one hand. She wore a stethoscope around her neck. Her name was Dr. …
As I sat in one of Uganda’s most prestigious universities with my multi-cultural co-workers trying to raise awareness about women’s reproductive health, I had the most cringe-worthy moment of my life. As we answered questions about how condoms and religion don’t agree with each other, a guy in his mid-20s told us we should talk to the women exclusively. When …
We Bleed Red! Bleed seven days a month, 12 times a year and half our lifetime. Have the womb of the universe, still, sanitary pads need to be folded in a black polythene. Mindset demands, we whisper in ears, not touch pickles, or enter temples. Alas! Temples have goddesses, and people have forgotten that goddesses are women. What’s the shame? …
Every year for international women’s day, WhatsApp is flooded with forwarding messages about women. Their importance, their achievements, and an ever long reasons for them to be celebrated. One said, “A beautiful woman draws strength from troubles, smiled during distress and grown stronger with prayers and hope. You are one of them. Wishing you a very Happy Women’s day.” …
“From this lens, we can easily view photoshopping as anti-feminist. We can argue that the industry is not inclusive. That it does not embrace all body types, colors, styles, shapes, and sizes“ How does the changing face of photo retouching affect us? By now, most of us are aware of photo retouching. How the people we see in magazines, billboards, …
A few weeks ago, one of Times of India’s headlines read, “UP woman tied up, thrashed on panchayat’s order; molested”. I received this video as a part of a forward message thread. Amongst these angry and reasonably reacting people were people, who supported the panchayat’s decision. They wanted everyone to honor the decision of a panchayat since this sort of …
“A married woman has the same right to control her own body as does an unmarried woman” Rape is never an easy topic to talk about. We are talking about a violation of a human being’s body, trust, emotions, sanity, and confidence by another human. It seems unthinkable when you put it that way, no? Unfortunately, marital rape exists in most …
India is a diverse country and full of contradictions. On one side we have a long history of influential women leaders while on the other, girls and women are asked to dress in a certain way to not entice men into raping them. Women are sacred only for as long as they follow a prescribed outline of how to look, …
“These feminists are unafraid to call out their friends and family in cases of sexual violence. They are unafraid of the legal system. And most importantly, they are willing to learn and improve their errors” The past year has seen the breakthrough of a new feminism. Of new young voices bringing in a cyclical change to the story and wants …
Celebrate Women, This Month and Every Month As I am sure many of you know or have heard, March is Women’s History Month. It’s the month to appreciate, understand, and recognize women who have propelled the human race forward. Personally, I believe this is all women. Most of whom bear names we will never see running across newspaper headlines. Most …