What Sexual Harassment Means To The Average Delhi Girl
Honestly, I’m one of the lucky few in Delhi who’s never been eve-teased or targeted in any way. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t experienced these things in my surroundings. And it would be useless to deny that they’re a huge part of my life. Because they are, just as they are for any [...]
On the Right to Wear Shorts
It’s not about what this season’s style gurus tell us to wear, it’s not about defying an existing social order. It’s about freedom. The freedom to wear what we want without fear of the consequences. It’s about social justice. We live in a society where men are perfectly comfortable urinating on the side of a [...]
Do we dare to wear what we want?
The famous No Pants Subway Ride launched in New York City in 2002 with seven participants stripping off on the subway, and completing their respective rides in their boxers. A few years later, it was an annual, international movement and in January this year, the No Pants Subway Ride involved tens of thousands of participants [...]
Wall Street Journal’s India Journal: Rethinking Safety in Delhi
By Veronica Weis Something has gone fundamentally awry in the fabric of a city when reoccurring headlines of “rape,” “dowry killing” and other gender-based violence are treated as banalities, acknowledged with cursory glances. It’s no surprise, then, that when you broach the topic of public safety with a woman in Delhi, she will likely launch [...]
Freedom lost at the hand of sexual harassment
Freedom: The dictionary defines it as ‘the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint; exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.; the power to determine action without restraint; political or national independence; personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery’. My first memory of being harassed on [...]
Playing Twenty Questions With a Mumbai Sex Worker
Random guy: “Have you experienced an Indian gigolo or stripper?” That’s not what I expected to hear a stranger ask me as I was sitting with a friend, eating at a family restaurant. This strange incident prompted me to do some research which led me to this statistic from the Times of India: “Every month, [...]
Making Delhi Sweet Again
I’ve lived in Delhi my whole life. And it’s here that I have always heard myself say, “home sweet home.” Now, 24 years later, I only say “home.” So the word sweet is gone. Why? What has changed? It’s not that I don’t want to call my home sweet anymore but the scars and unpleasant [...]
Where Are The Men?
By Sanchari Banerjee While studying my Sociology of Gender paper in college, I came across the term ‘Macho Man’, a concept trying to explain the personality traits of a man who is ‘macho’. There is a certain aggressive, rough demeanour which describes a macho man. But is objectification of women a just part of being [...]
Delhi: The City Where Angels Fear To Tread
By Kara Hartley Tonight at 10pm, after meeting for a coffee and catch up, my friend and I left ‘The Living Room’ in Hauz Khas Village in two separate auto-rickshaws to go home. On the drive to Vasant Kunj my driver struck up a regular conversation with me. “Where are you from ma’am?” “Do you [...]
