“I taught them how to make plates out of leaves and how to grow vegetables. …I taught them you’ve got to work hard to feed yourselves! That is what empowering women is all about, not about making men and women fight.”
Video: Gulabi Gang (Current on Youtube)
I’m often caught in the strange nexus of having lived in developing countries and, at least for a little while, in most time zones in the continental U.S.
Misogyny experienced in Shanghai is totally different than, say, what I have experienced in Costa Rica — which is, again, completely different from what I have experienced living in Denver versus a small town in Wisconsin. All of which is completely different from living in the D.C. metro area. Sufficed to say, my ideas of what is permissible behavior in public spaces, and permissible behavior of public figures and lawmakers, are a little complicated.
The morning commute, however, kinda universally sucks:
“Every Indian woman the Guardian spoke to for this article agreed that harassment was part of their everyday lives. Mahanta revealed that she always carries chilli powder in her handbag if she ever has to take public transport and needed to throw it in the face of anyone with wandering hands.”
“Laxmi Sargara, 18, wed Rakesh when she was just one and he was three. She grew up with her own family, only finding out she was married when her in-laws came to claim her this month. … ‘I was unhappy about the marriage. I told my parents who did not agree with me, then I sought help,’ Laxmi told Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency.”
Article: Indian teenager annuls her child ‘marriage’ (BBC News)
Wayfaring Feminist 