Tag: Gender
The Bare Life: Discrimination Against Widows
A Hindu widow is supposed to take off all ornaments, wear only black or white, cut her hair short, walk barefoot after her husband dies. It’s a living death for her–she cannot even participate in auspicious ceremonies like weddings, nor is she allowed to remarry. By contrast nothing changes for...
The Bare Life: Discrimination Against Widows
A Hindu widow is supposed to take off all ornaments, wear only black or white, cut her hair short, walk barefoot after her husband dies. It’s a living death for her–she cannot even participate in auspicious ceremonies like weddings, nor is she allowed to remarry. By contrast nothing changes for...
Restrictions on women’s mobility
“Girls have a lot of restrictions on them. Boys don’t have any restrictions. Also boys say bad things when they see a girl by herself”. A teenager from Jharkhand rationalises why there’s so much restrictions on her mobility, thus. Four years from the horrific murder and rape of Jyothi Singh...
Restrictions on women’s mobility
"Girls have a lot of restrictions on them. Boys don't have any restrictions. Also, boys say bad things when they see a girl by herself."
Oppression of the Veil
“I don’t like it, But I am forced to do it…[t]here’s a lot of pressure to veil myself”. This video examines how women’s choices and their voices are repeatedly nulified under patriarchal oppression in the garb of tradition. The video reveals women performing hard labour like fetching water and...
Let’s give up the veil, so that we can breathe
“I want to be able to go out and work too. Purdah and other such practices should end”, says a woman who has been forced to don the veil in her marital home poignantly. “Why is it that men are not forced to wear the veil our?” asks our Community...
Veiling Should be a Choice not a Compulsion
The image that comes to mind when we think of the veil is that of a Muslim woman in a burqua, whereas, the practice of veiling or ‘purdah’ (literally curtain) as it is known in South Asia, is not limited to any one religion. It is not simply a...
Playtime for Boys and Housework for Girls: Training in Gender Roles Begins Early
When an 8-year old boy and his 11-year old older sister are interviewed about their daily activities the gender disparities in division of household chores come to the fore. The story powerfully demonstrates how difficult it is for girls to aspire to the same educational attainments as boys, to this...