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 …
Category: Women in Worksplace
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 …
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 …
Queen: A Fresh Perspective on Women
Bollywood movies are usually about heroism where a man rescues and comforts the female character and takes responsibility to fix all problems. Most sucessful Bollywood films have a male superstar in the lead role. However, looking at the recent trends in Bollywood we can see that there is a small shift from the typical movies to a new kind of …
Elections and Women
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections declared their results yesterday. First things first, congratulations to our new Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Modi. As a social media jockey, I have followed these elections very closely. There is no questioning the fact that these were the most ruthlessly fought elections in recent times where the ruling party was desperate to reclaim its power, …
Feminism or Basic Human Rights?
Growing up in an ordinary, military, middle-class family, I didn’t expect myself to become a feminist. When I was a teenager, the prevailing view was that feminism meant being anti-men. Feminists were women who were divorced, widowed, or victims of abuse and hated everything to do with men. They lobbied for women’s freedoms only so that they could take away …
Woman in a Man’s World

A walk near a construction site in my city made me think about the involvement of women in male-oriented jobs. What caught my eye was the large number of women working with their children at the site. These women were doing the same heavy lifting as men, while constantly taking care of their children. One of the women there told …
Insignificant Other: The Political Ball Called Women’s Empowerment
“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” ~Roseanne Barr The memories of the horrendous gang rape that took place on December 16, 2012 haven’t faded yet. More reports of rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence act as constant reminders of the socio-cultural mess India has become. The constant violation of rights …
The Bollywood Hypocrisy Around Women Rights
A couple of weeks prior to Women’s Day, a documentary based on a women’s vigilante group, The Gulaabi Gang, was released in India. The production of this documentary started in 2009, after the director Nishtha Jain, met the organization’s leader Sampat Pal Devi. She has been a champion of women’s rights for decades. She has fought against child marriage, the …