Over the years, your support has made Women’s Web the leading resource for women in India. Now, it is our turn to ask, how can we make this even more useful for you? Please take our short 5 minute questionnaire – your feedback is important to us!
Arundhati Roy is a literary genius, a social activist and a person who believes in fighting for the rights of disadvantaged people.
Arundhati Roy studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, but it was literature that was her true calling. Her screenplay, which was based on her own life account of an architecture student, titled In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones won rave acclaim and she also performed in Electric Moon.
It was her critical take on Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen that placed Arundhati in the limelight. Her fierce and unabashed questioning of making a movie on the rape of a woman, without her consent made the headlines of a number of tabloids.
Arundhati began writing her first novel The God of Small Things in the year 1992 – which on completion in 1996 won the 1997 Booker Prize. The book was also hailed as one of the notable books of the year by the New York Times .
She has been actively involved in a number of social causes including independence of Kashmir (for which she faced threats of arrest), Narmada dam project and planned on contributing to the book titled We Are One, which delves into the different cultures of people around the world.
Named as one of the world’s 100 most inspirational women by The Guardian, she has received a number of awards including the Booker Prize, Lannan Foundation’s Cultural Freedom Award, Sydney Peace Prize, Sahitya Akademi awards and Norman Mailer Prize.
Why we find her inspiring:
– Even after severe criticism and threats to be incarcerated, Arundhati Roy continued to be a social activist and voiced her opinion bravely.
– A role model for those who fight for what they believe is right.
*Photo credit: Frontline Kashmir.
Women's Web is a vibrant community for Indian women, an authentic space for us to be ourselves and talk about all things that matter to us. Follow us via the 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!
Many women have lost their lives to this darkness. It's high time we raise awareness, and make maternal mental health screening a part of the routine check ups.
Trigger Warning: This deals with severe postpartum depression, and may be triggering for survivors.
Motherhood is considered a beautiful blessing. Being able to create a new life is indeed beautiful and divine. We have seen in movies, advertisements, stories, everywhere… where motherhood is glorified and a mother is considered an epitome of tolerance and sacrifice.
But no one talks about the downside of it. No one talks about the emotional changes a woman experiences while giving birth and after it.
Calling a vaginal birth a 'normal' or 'natural' birth was probably appropriate years ago when Caesarian births were rare, in an emergency.
When I recently read a post on Facebook written by a woman who had a vaginal birth casually refer to her delivery as a natural one, it rankled.
For too long, we have internalized calling vaginal deliveries ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ deliveries as if any other way of childbirth is abnormal. What about only a vaginal birth is natural? Conversely, what about a Caesarian Section is not normal?
When we check on the health of the mother and baby post delivery, why do we enquire intrusively, what kind of delivery they had? “Was it a ‘normal’ delivery?” we ask.