SELF-LOVE IS IN THE AIR!
Here’s for you some sweet & simple tips to fall in love with yourself this Valentine’s Day. There is no one worthy of your love as much as you are. Valentine’s Week is thronged with mixed emotions – some appreciating every bit of it, some drenched in an ocean full...
FEEBLE WHISPERS & BITTER GAZES
And I, Feminism, stood on the edge of the stage, burying myself in a mellow spot. Alone, there, I stood in one of the corners, continuously perspiring and hearing my own breath. Rehearsals scuttled through my mind and were now coming out of my lips in the form of...
Life of a Woman through Indian Cinema | TARA Recommends
With a belief that art is always political, we wish to look at art and culture as a means to inseminate the truths of a society. Over the years, as conversations have varied across cultures, art has been influenced alongside. Looking at Indian cinema...
क्या घर मेरी सुरक्षित जगह है ?
क्या आपने कभी किसी को ऐसा कहते सुना है की उनको घर पर रहना नहीं पसंद? घर पर रहना ना पसंद होने के कई मायने और कारण हो सकते हैं। स्कूल जाना ना पसंद होने के कई कारण हमको रोज ही दिख जाते हैं, परंतु यह समझना थोड़ा मुश्किल लगता है की किसी बच्चे को अपने घर पर रहना ही नहीं...
Breach of Trust : Child Abuse and Miseries
As soon as my semester exams concluded and I returned from Delhi, an old friend from school started calling me frequently. While Asma ( name changed ) had always been an ardent talker, there was certainly something wrong with her tone this time. One Saturday evening,...
Wo(men) belong in the kitchen
Recently an advertisement came out with people interviewing for the ‘toughest job in the world’. The conditions were as follows. It required the employee to be standing up most of the time without any breaks. They would have to wear several hats like those of...
Saima’s Anecdote: The Cost of Squashing Sexuality
Saima’s incuriosity in the regular ‘boy tattle’ had already irked her friends. They would keep questioning her disinterest every so often but she would manage to dodge the conversation every single time. Nevertheless, a sense of hesitation would still come out making...
A Shrinking Space : Practicing Feminism in Academia
“Women’s Studies are not just a branch of scholarship but a part of larger social movement” -Andre Beteille History of Feminism Feminism is one of the oldest movements in global history. The main idea that this movement carries is to end gender discrimination....
Towards Ungendered Childhood
Do you remember your favorite toy from your childhood? At that time, our toys meant the world to us. They were our best friends. We fought for them with our siblings. We cried in front of our parents to get gold of our favorite ones. We yearned for the time when...
How the Netherlands Revolutionized Sex Education
The mention of sex education elicits only a few thoughts in our minds. Some may be regarding the differences in ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’, anatomy of the body, or reproduction. While these are important aspects of sex education, these topics fail to explore the...
Uttara: Words Towards Justice
The genesis of Uttara, a Hindi women’s magazine based out of Nainital, is set against the backdrop of the political movement demanding statehood for Uttarakhand. The Anti-Liquor Movement in the state (1980s) and the Uttarakhand movement (1990s) are key precursors...
Homophobia ft. Indian Cops
A person waiting for her mother at the bus shelter is suddenly attacked by the police. As soon as her mother comes to know, she rushes to the spot, only to be brutally beaten. So much so, that they’re admitted to the General Hospital in Ernakulam. What could their...
In Defence of Everything Girly
“He looks like a girl! You should listen to some real music.” This was my response to friends who raved about the teen sensation, Justin Bieber when he shot to fame with his viral song “Baby.” This ‘real music’ eventually turned out to be some popular rap song that...
Untangling with Jalebi
A candid interview with the man behind desi queer art Q: Please tell us about yourself. My internet name is Jalebi. I prefer the pronouns he/him and identify as gay. I am a 26-year old Engineer living in Karachi. I'm originally from another city in Sindh, a smaller...
Letter to Gender Equality
Dear Gender Equality, Are you breathing healthily as we masquerade with masks? As the world collectively battles a pandemic attempting physical distancing and lockdown, you too are engulfed having suffered a body blow, bleeding in solidarity with Women. We hear that...
Stay home, stay safe?
'I understood that something wrong was happening, that touch felt uncomfortable and was surely not an act of love or care. Unfortunately, that was all that I could comprehend as an eight year old.' We often hear people talk about the safety of a girl child in the...
My love-hate relationship with porn
(Please note that content could be triggering. Reader’s discretion is advised.) My first introduction to porn was through those sex story apps, which had language options in it, and the stories were categorized. You could set a passcode to open the app and it came...
Inuring Body Positivity
In search of a fair and spotless skinned girl with a height of 5’5’’, having an hourglass slim body, long hair, big dough eyes, full plump lips, and an exceptionally well-kept record of low pitch soft voice! These are the expectations for a girl to enter wedlock. But...
Inside the Bois Locker Room; a conversation we all partake in
With the recent sharing of an Instagram story about a boy’s locker room talk, we finally have the proof of the elephant in the room. There are photographs of participant lists, messages, and women that these young boys objectified. Delhi Commission for Women(DCW)...
Cyber-bullying and How to Report It
Have you ever been bullied?’ – this is a question which a large majority of people will reply in the affirmative. As unfortunate as it may be, bullying is a malady which takes form as early as kindergarten and follows people well into their adulthoods – a trauma that...
Walking – A Gender Privilege
“I love walking in the evenings with fewer people on the streets and less light.” What would you assume the configuration of the speaker for this statement? In an ideal world, the answer would be - anyone, anywhere. In a logical world, it would perhaps be a boy or a...