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Human rights activist, Shehla Rashid wrote a killer post on Facebook about female leaders and true feminism from men, which is a must-read for everybody. Find out more here!
An M.Phil student at JNU and a part of the All India Students Association, Shehla Rashid hails from Kashmir and has been a very vocal social campaigner and activist. Recently, she posted about the realities of being a female leader in our country, and how communities first need to encourage women to lead, rather than just paying lip service. Read it here.
Talking about being a female leader, and providing a reality check to being an activist, Rashid makes some very valid points about people (and especially men) passively supporting her but who do not like to think about women in their homes doing similar things as her.
“So, gentlemen, when I get messages of admiration from you, it feels great, but if you show up for a protest or a political meeting without your wife or daughter or sister, there’s slight condescension in your admiration.”
It is true that it’s easier to support ‘other women’ doing brave things, than to ‘allow’ the women in one’s home their autonomy in making such decisions. Instead, women are encouraged to confine themselves to traditional roles. As Shehla says, “Often enough, in these households, the women are performing all the traditional gender-assigned roles: bringing roti after roti while we eat or staying in the kitchen throughout the visit, while we relish the food made by them.”
Apart from that, she also talks about the legitimate concerns that women face in leadership positions which men do not; for instance, menstruation is one major headache that men do not need to undertake but women are stuck with.
“I’m not going to paint you a rosy picture – activism is difficult and, unless you don’t sacrifice enough, you cannot be in leadership positions.”
She also impresses on the fact that we need more women leaders for a more holistic growth of the country. The importance of the same cannot be emphasised enough.
“If women are not urgently empowered and represented in positions of leadership, don’t expect your daughters and sisters to be safe from sexual violence or gender-based violence.”
I appreciate Shehla for raising genuine concerns about the future of women in leadership. She has managed to narrow down the root cause to a very great extent, which shows an intimate analysis of social structures in the country. Must read for the week, surely!
New Delhi, India I like to read, write, and talk. A feminist through and through, with a soft spot for chocolate. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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