Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
A girl becomes a woman by learning to navigate public spaces to ensure that she is safe from the hands that are always there, or else be caged "for her own good".
A girl becomes a woman by learning to navigate public spaces to ensure that she is safe from the hands that are always there, or else be caged “for her own good”.
The first time you step out on your own is a lesson. You teach yourself the art of contortion. Twist and turn, Swivel and dodge Until fingers can’t touch, can’t reach, can’t stake a claim to what is not theirs. Because if they do, they’ll lock YOU up in boxes, saying your body already knows how to bend And that a cage is always safer than a coffin.
They’ll say you dreamed too much of streets that only had echoes of the footsteps behind you, That had smoke and mirrors, But no faces, Just conversations and stillness. They’ll say I don’t see it so it must not be true. I don’t hear screaming so there are only songs. They’ll say I am happy and safe outside and you will be too, just not here.
The hundredth time you step out, draping a shawl becomes a force of habit. An old rotting armour against fear, that is always new, always there, always reminding you of a distant whistle. The jingling of keys and pens and pepper spray in your bag take on the rhythm of a hymn sung in the wrong hour.
When it’s dark, there are phone calls acting as lodestars begging you to come home, asking you to wash off the grime when we all know that dust is not the only reason it was so hard to breathe,
Every time you step out, there is a battle cry heard somewhere between your breath and heartbeat, teaching that You walk in spaces you own But that don’t belong to you.
Image source: shutterstock
read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
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.
Please enter your email address