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Presently, we talk a lot about feminism. We discuss issues around equality in the workspace, cinema and at home. On whose behalf are we talking about it? Does this feminism include all women or is it concerned with the privileged ones who knows about it and can talk about it? Does this feminism confine itself to a particular class of people or does it include all women? What it is feminism to women who don’t know that such a term exists? I know that’s a lot of questions. But this has been bothering a lot for quite a few days. As an attempt to answer the question and including voices of diverse women in defining feminism, we had movies last year, ie, Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey and Darlings which majorly talks about domestic abuse and what feminism is to these women. This year a web series “Ayali” directed by Muthukumar starring Abi Nakshathra streaming on ZEE5 is an addition to this list. Like the two movies, Ayali also uses humour as a strongest weapon to question the taboo that exists around women.
Right to education is a basic right in our democratic country and Ayali talks about how women are deprived of education conveniently creating taboo around women, puberty and a God named “Ayali”. As a further step, this web series analyses how men create patriarchy to oppress women. Nobody questions why women should get married after attaining puberty. There is no answer to the blind belief even if one questions it. Instead of making a revolution around it, protagonist Tamizhselvi plays around the foolishness surrounding her by simply choosing not to tell about it. Her choice of survival of the fittest lets her develop a modern relationship with her mom. Tamizhselvi and her mom’s choice of using wittiness to fool the men around them become a strong tool and a definition of feminism to them.
It becomes a revolution when all the women in the village protest against the patriarchal system. However, it does not take anything more than a man gaining sense to let other men understand how this patriarchy has put them behind.
Ayali is one of the voices of minority women that give a deeper understanding of the lives of these women and this is why I enjoyed it and would recommend you to watch it. If the world needs to become a better place to live, as a first step, isn’t it important to empathize with the diverse people and embrace the diversity?
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This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. 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.
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Dear Women’s Web Community Member,
You may have wondered at our being on the quieter side during the last couple of months. Thank you for your patience, and we wanted to come back to you with a detailed note on what’s been happening at our end of things.
When we first began Women’s Web, as a blog from one woman’s desk along with a few like-minded souls, little could we have imagined the heights that it would soar to. Over the years, Women’s Web has published over 20000 stories (almost all by women), empowered countless women with the ideas, community and resources to chase their dreams, employed hundreds of women in core and project-based roles, and in the process, emerged as the OG women’s community in India. It has also inspired many others to build communities of a similar nature, all enabling women (and other-underrepresented groups) in their own ways.
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