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As if physical crimes were not enough, every girl child is a victim of psychological crime done to her while teaching her gender roles.
A tear from the womb;
As blood, she was shed.
If managed to survive,
she was underfed.
Toddler phase,
she had not seen.
Shackled by all, she was made
to stand on her knee.
Clad in a frock,
she was told a fairytale.
The princess, there,
was rescued by a male.
Her big brown eyes
And wavy soft curls
were drowned under a veil
decorated by pearls.
She could have jumped; she could have smiled.
She would have laughed at the top of her voice.
But you took her decisions
without asking her choice.
She is wild as the wind,
untamed as a tide.
Don’t put her in chains,
she is your girl child.
This poem is about the struggle in the life of a girl-born. Ever since that cradle-figure of a baby girl begins to take shape, her quest for survival begins. The cells in her body aren’t sure of the extent to which they could multiply because at any time a pair of surgical scissors can cut off their union with life (womb) forever.
The few drops of blood that were helping her breath through the process of her creation leave the crying womb without any mercy, for it knows the hands that are tearing her tissues off are obeying the desire of her parents who created her but hated the fact of having to accept her.
She, the product of their love, is not destined to be the object of their love.
As if physical crimes were not enough, every girl child is a victim of psychological crime done to her while teaching her gender roles. They are told to accept the subordinate position, next to boys. She is never taught to stand on her feet but her knees.
Walking and standing on knees when one is fully capable of running with feet is crippling physically as well as psychologically. And this is what a girl-born is subjected to. Her wings are clipped before she could explore her horizons.
She has to limit the expansion of her goals and dreams to certain fields. She is warned not to penetrate a man’s world.
Even the fairytales told her to tell her that a girl is meant to be a “damsel in distress” and her rescuer will be a boy who is as human as her yet more powerful than her. She is conditioned into surrendering to men even through these stories.
Her freedom to feel her beauty, her wish to celebrate her uniqueness, and her desire to be happy are often subjugated. She has to be bashful, for shyness and modesty are her ornaments. The basic right denied to her since time immemorial thus is that of CHOICE.
This poem and the write-up have been published in the 2015 anthology entitled, An Address to Indian Patriarchy by Nishtha Mishra.
Image source: Shylendrahoode via Getty Images, free and edited on CanvaPro
Dr. Nishtha Mishra is an internationally published author. She is a Doctorate in English Literature from one of the reputed Central Universities. She has been an all round topper and has 5 gold medals to 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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