Niven Charvet tells his Indian friends why he prefers China to India:
My belief in humanism, my love of my own language, a certain libertarian cast of mind – none of these could really explain why I am more comfortable in China than in India.
To me India is a land of separation, China a land of [...]
Archive for the 'Women' Category
‘Despicable Separation’
Published by May 10th, 2008 in Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Religion, Society and Women. 0 CommentsWomen’s reservations bill
Published by May 7th, 2008 in Democracy, India, Patriarchy, Policy, Politics and Women. 0 CommentsSome early reactions:
Premasri asks- who represents Indian women?
On average, Indian women work longer hours than men, as their day consists of a more diverse array of tasks relating both to the maintenance of their livelihoods (public sphere) and homes (domestic sphere). In rural India, this could take the form of both working in the fields [...]
Stuff girls do
Published by May 6th, 2008 in Blogging, Feminism, Recommended Links and Women. 0 CommentsTania, Nancy and Sherlyn have started a new blog, which they describe as “a blog about stuff girls do, stuff girls do but never come out”. Their intro holds a lot of promise:
What to expect?
1. Some of the dirtiest secret of women!
2. A candid description of female thinking.
3. We will talk about our attitude [...]
Female sexuality through a woman’s eyes
Published by May 4th, 2008 in Feminism, Literature, Patriarchy, Society, Women and sexuality. 2 Comments‘Is it risky for a woman writer to deal with female sexuality in India’? Sarojini Sahoo, feminist writer in Oriya, tries to answer that question:
”Yes, it is risky for a woman writer to deal with these themes in an Eastern country, and for that I face much criticism? But still I believe someone has to [...]
Indian women aren’t politically aware?
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Personal, Politics, Theory and Women. 0 CommentsBrijesh Nair says American women are more politically ‘conscious’ than Indian women:
If we take 5 Indian men and women each, at least 2 men will be politically conscious but I am sure 4 of the women will never take any interest in understanding the various political issues around them. They hate talking about politics. I [...]
Insurance for sex workers
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Business, Human Rights, Society and Women. 0 CommentsLIC introduces an insurance scheme for sex workers- ‘let’s revel in the news’, says Premasri :
To reiterate, this represents a tremendous victory for sex workers, as it symbolizes an eventual shift towards a rights-based framework, which recognizes sex workers as workers with the fundamental right to basic services such as savings accounts and life [...]
‘White trash’?
Published by May 3rd, 2008 in Culture, Media, Prejudice, Sports and Women. 0 CommentsSandyk expresses his views on an article by Barkha Dutt in which she refers to the IPL cheerleaders as ‘white trash’:
But I can not blame her since Indian morality is a big issue with people in power and public domain. We do not like things which make us uncomfortable. We have not learnt the art [...]
Fellow Blogbhartian Shruthi on why she decided to become a Stay-At-Home-Mother (SAHM) and quit her work, at least temporarily:
People ask me all the time why I chose to be with home with my baby after being so vociferous about women standing up for their rights. Please understand - working out of home does not imply [...]
What destiny a daughter fulfilled
Published by April 28th, 2008 in Development, Feminism, Fiction, Prejudice, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsDr. Motion pens a beautiful story that ends thus:
You are lucky that times have changed, your mother was not fortunate enough to follow her heart.
Don’t worry, I haven’t really given the ending away. Please read it.
Who cares if its a girl?
Published by April 21st, 2008 in India, Patriarchy, Prejudice, Society, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsIn a really heartbreaking account, Roop Rai chronicles the unfortunate state at the RSRM hospital at Royapuram, Chennai where two families who have had children born the day before laying claim to male child, while nobody wants the female one.
“We paid them money at every stage. A ward boy took Rs 300 saying it was [...]
MAC Attack
Published by April 16th, 2008 in Appeal, Community, Feminism, Personal, Prejudice, Society, Women, sexual harrassment and sexuality. 0 CommentsEllie posted about her encounter with one creep on her blog:
Only last week, the Sunday evening was beautiful and at around 6:30 in the evening, in broad daylight, I decided to walk down to Dodo’s place, less than a km away from my flat. I put my really wasted jeans and a very un-flattering kurta [...]
‘Of Laws and Lawmakers’
Published by April 6th, 2008 in Government, Justice, Prejudice, Society and Women. 0 CommentsThe Government of India woke up to the fact that the Development of Women and Children is important enough to be granted a Ministry of its own, only in 2006. Before that this onerous responsibility was carried out by a Department , which did not exist before 1985. No better source than the horse’s mouth. [...]
North East Diary
Published by March 31st, 2008 in Adivasi, Culture, North East, Personal and Women. 0 CommentsSriram Anathanarayan notices the strong presence of strong women in the North East:
Of course my heart took a little dive when I saw the local Sub-Inspector of the Assam Police at the station receive his weekly bribe as they were unloading the sacks, but even here the women’s chutzpah was evident. She handed him [...]
“(Yo)nifying with the self”
Published by March 28th, 2008 in Culture, Feminism, Personal, Society, South Asia, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsAfter much debate with her inner voices, Sunshine finally submits her scripts for “Yoni ki baat” a play inspired by Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues”. Some of her scripts were accepted and she’s now rehearsing for the play.
More than reaching out to the South Asian community, I have reached out to myself, in some of the [...]
The Shaming of Scarlett Keeling
Published by March 26th, 2008 in Feminism, Government, Human Rights, Justice, Media, Patriarchy, Women, public space and sexuality. 17 CommentsIf the killing was brutal, the reactions that followed haven’t been kind either- Sharanya condemns those who are condemning the victim:
In other words, the condemning of the murdered girl, her family, her friends, their lifestyles and their choices is a typical misogynist response – the wicked woman gets her dues. And this time, there are [...]
Elaben
Published by March 26th, 2008 in Activism, Business, Community, Poverty, Society and Women. 0 CommentsM.S.Sriram, in a long post, says it is an honour to know Ela Bhatt:
It has never been difficult to get through to Elaben. I do not know who her secretary is and when wanted her appointment, she herself would immediately respond on phone as to whether she was available at a particular day and [...]
Sukhpreet Kaur, the heroine
Published by March 25th, 2008 in Human Rights, India, Politics, Recommended Links, South Asia and Women. 0 CommentsAt a time when the debate on Sarabjit Singh is heating up, his wife declared that her daughters and she don’t want the Indian government to set free some terrorist to get her beloved back. JK at Varnam contrasts this with the genuflection of the Indian government in the recent handling of the Tibet issue.
[...]
Three unwanted babies
Published by March 23rd, 2008 in India, Patriarchy, Society and Women. 2 CommentsNita’s ‘brief but true account of my experiences after my second daughter was born’:
By the time I went home to my father’s place I had caught on - and was not amused. Everything will return to normal, I told myself miserably.
However the nursemaid who came in to attend to me and the baby dashed those [...]
Bhumika
Published by March 22nd, 2008 in Activism, Caste, Feminism, Human Rights, Language, Media, Patriarchy, Prejudice, Society and Women. 0 CommentsIn 1993 in Hyderabad a group of women from different feminist organisations decided to venture into the challenging terrain of publishing a feminist magazine in Telugu and the first issue of Bhumika came out in the month of Jan1993.
Bhumika Women Collective emerged in the context of the women’s movement as a felt need to make [...]
Frames and Angles seems to be a new group blog on cinema- the latest post reviews a few films shown at the recent ‘1st Women’s Film Festival’ in Chennai:
The festival’s theme was simple. Movies directed by woman directors, from all over the world. Being conducted by InKo centre, a Indian Korean cultural centre, movies were [...]
Shariah in the West
Published by March 21st, 2008 in Human Rights, Justice, Patriarchy, Policy, Religion, Secularism and Women. 0 CommentsAsghar Ali Engineer foresees conflict between conservative ‘ulama and progressive Muslims if Shariah laws are applied in the West:
I have met many ‘ulama in UK. They are as conservative as in Islamic countries, perhaps even more in the alien environment of UK and other Western countries. If any attempt is made to apply Islamic [...]
Man’s pleasure over woman’s need
Published by March 21st, 2008 in Feminism, Patriarchy, Theory, Women and sexuality. 1 CommentAvishek has a theory- he suggests that women ‘themselves have contributed to their sufferings because of their non-confrontational attitude‘:
The movie also briefly mentioned an egregious incident from India. It referred to an incident where five government-run mental institutions sought hysterectomy for 330 mentally retarded girls and women (In 1994, hysterectomies were performed on 17 girls [...]
Unchaahi
Published by March 20th, 2008 in Activism, Blogging, Culture, Feminism, India, Media, Prejudice, South Asia and Women. 0 CommentsUnchaahi is a new group blog that aims to be a ‘voice against Female Genocide (a result of sex-selective abortions, and murders of female infants also known as female infanticide) focused specifically in the Indian Subcontinent.’ An excerpt from a recent post (on Ekta Kapoor soaps) by Roop Rai, one of the contributors:
I wondered then, [...]
Calling Into Question
Published by March 19th, 2008 in India, Justice, North East, Prejudice, Racism, Spotlight Series and Women. 1 Comment[ This is Essay # 27 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Calling Into Question
———
Swar Thounaojam
“In the old days, they didn’t even know they were Kurds. And it was that way through the Ottoman period: None of the people who chose to stay went around beating their chests and crying, ‘We are the [...]
Gender and other identities
Published by March 17th, 2008 in Caste, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, Women and sexuality. 0 CommentsAt Ultra Violet, Usha BN eplains why ‘gender does not function in isolation’:
In the 70s and 80s, the women’s movement in India focused on mobilising women across caste, class and ethnic background against violence and discrimination. Women were seen as a single political category. So there was a universalising approach which held that all women [...]
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