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…AND ANOTHER ONE BACK. While the decriminalization of consensual gay sex is indeed a victory for those rooting for orientation-equality (refer to this news item), constricted notions of propriety continue to be imposed on basic choices deemed even remotely threatening to social fabric. A case in point being denim. I kid you not. Jeans, according to the Uttar Pradesh Principals Association, may well be the root of degenerate teen behavior. Scrap the blue stuff and voila! We’ll have model citizens.
The two may be seemingly unrelated but they point to a constant struggle to assert our right to self-expression and fundamental choices. And remind us that it’s far from over. Self-determination, for the most part, is still sitting pretty in a the latter half of a dictionary.
At least in Uttar Pradesh, people are fighting for the right to wear jeans/denim. In Chennai, the situation is so worse that medical college students had to move to the Madras High Court to be allowed to wear salwar-kameez instead of getting themselves draped in a sari… And while the Court granted a relief to the students, faculty members are still a harassed lot. There’s no way women in the teaching profession can step out of the sari in several self-financed engineering colleges.
[…] Dilnavaz Bamboat at Ultra Violet believes there is plenty more to be fought for: While the decriminalization of consensual gay sex is indeed a victory for those rooting for […]
[…] Dilnavaz Bamboat at Ultra Violet believes there is plenty more to be fought for: While the decriminalization of consensual gay sex is indeed a victory for those rooting for […]
When I was studying in Anna University, the then Vice-Chancellor came into our classes and started berating women for distracting men by not wearing dupattas, and wearing colours like green and yellow and red. He also called on women in my class (including me) and vocalised his issues with our clothes by saying “Where is your ‘top’? [He meant our dupattas] Don’t you have any shame? You are bringing dishonour to your family’s name. You are the reason today’s young men are being forced to ‘eve-tease. You are asking to be raped.” Classic victim blaming.
This is the same man who, in the carpentry workshop, told me I would not given priority because I was a woman, and the men needed to learn these skills more than I would. I would anyway not be using this education, and it was a waste of our parents’ money to send girl children to engineering college.
Not only were women not allowed to wear trousers of any cloth, we were forced to wear either salwar-kameez sets with a dupatta draped over our torsos or saris. The men, of course, did not have a dress code, for it was the woman’s fault that the men were “distracted” by them. When we tried protesting and started talking to print and tv journalists, we were shut down with threats of suspension and expulsion, threats that were followed through in some cases. A weak student’s union that was run by the administration did not help.
The idea of self-expression in these institutions is a joke. The idea of anything creative or individual coming out of these institutions is a joke.
It’s happening in Bangalore too. (http://www.newswatch.in/blog/expressionist/33). I agree with Tara — it’s hard to imagine that any free thought can take place in such repressive places.
Meena: I suppose it’s all relative. In Saudi Arabia they’d say “At least in Chennai they’re allowed to wear saris.” There will always be some other group that’s worse off, but it’s small consolation for those who’re fighting to live a life of free basic choices.
Tara: I’m trying very hard not to remark about his missing top (meaning brain). Yes, it’s a joke. But no one’s laughing. đ
Anindita: The regression that Bangalore is currently facing alarms me. It was the “coolest” city, how on earth did this come to be?
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