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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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As he stood in front of his door, Nishant prayed that his wife would be in a better mood. The baby thing was tearing them apart. When was the last time he had seen his wife smile?
Veena got into the lift. It was a festival day, and the space was crammed with little children dressed in bright yellow clothes, wearing fancy peacock feather crowns, and carrying flutes. Janmashtami gave her the jitters. She kept her face down, refusing to socialize with anyone.
They had moved to this new apartment three months ago. The whole point of shifting had been to get away from the ruthless questioning by ‘well-wishers’.
“You have been married for ten years! Why no child yet?”
I huffed, puffed and panted up the hill, taking many rest breaks along the way. My calf muscles pained, my heart protested, and my breathing became heavy at one stage.
“Let’s turn back,” my husband remarked. We stood at the foot of Shravanbelagola – one of the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres. “We will not climb the hill,” he continued.
My husband and I were vacationing in Karnataka. It was the month of May, and even at the early hour of 8 am in the morning, the sun scorched our backs. After visiting Bangalore and Mysore, we had made a planned stop at this holy site in the Southern part of the state en route to Hosur. Even while planning our vacation, my husband was very excited at the prospect of visiting this place and the 18 m high statue of Lord Gometeshwara, considered one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues.
What we hadn’t bargained for was there would be 1001 granite steps that needed to be climbed to have a close-up view of this colossal magic three thousand feet above sea level on a hilltop. It would be an understatement to term it as an arduous climb.
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