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Anywhere they go, and be they of any age, any description, women are sexually harassed. What if we spoke about our molestation without stigma?
”A friend of mine was on was on a train journey. She woke up at night to see a man standing close to her and feeling her up.” ”Another one, had an undergarment thrown at her as she walked down a road.” ”And yet another one, waiting to cross the road, was hit on her breasts by a man in car that slowed down right in front of her, only to speed away after that.”
There are a thousand such stories that I know. Stories that my friends told me but were embarassed to tell anyone else. I went through something similar when I was 8 years old, and travelling with my mom. The hurt and the trauma becomes bearable but the frustration on not being able to do something about it, that burns as ever.
Men are wonderful. They are. So uncomplicated and practical. But what about these few animals (maybe an insult to animals!) amidst us? What do we do for them? Penning down what you have seen or been through would serve three things.
a) People who read this will know they are not the only one who go through this and are not to be blamed.
b) Convey to everyone what being a woman in India entails. The everyday challenge that we face in coming to work or being anywhere for that matter.
c) Break the social stigma surrounding it. Women feel victimised and are ashamed of what happened to them. Why?
We can talk about Nirbhaya or some other woman, but why are we scared of facing our own devils? Why write about this on this forum? So that more than two lakh men around you know and understand.
How many of us actually go back and tell our family about what we face? Why not tell the family of others what we survive?
Are you WOMAN enough to do that?
Image source: is a screen grab from the movie Raanjhanaa
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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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