““I’m considered to be a bad influence because I hang out with guys.”
”

“It’s not a written rule, but it’s expected of us that we wear skirts that go up to our knee or below the knee. If it’s any higher than that, we are told to change and are yelled at by the teachers. The teachers tell us we are trying to show off our legs, and we are slut-shamed for this.”

“We are a girls school
We know every one of us is going to be wearing a bra.
If it’s seen through… if we wear white and no-slip inside
we get shouted at.
”

““ For graduation, we have a huge list of how the blouse is supposed to be. The sleeve has to be 3/4th or full sleeve. It cannot be sleeveless or even a half sleeve. …. It shouldn’t be very deep.””

“I was in 9th grade and I had to buy new skirts, I was wearing my skirts from last year, and they were kind of short, but I wouldn’t say too short. They touched the back of your thighs and harass you. The teachers would say, “Look at how she’s wearing her skirt.” They touch your legs, and that made me uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure it has happened with other students too so it is quite common.”
”

“The teachers have told my friends and the grade above’s parents that
“this girl doesn’t behave well because she only hangs out with boys.” .
”

“ “The boys in my school have always been obsessed with football. Around 7th grade, quite a few girls were into football, so we made a team. We all wanted to get more practice. During a lunch break, the guys would play football on the field, so we went up to them and asked, “Do you mind if we take half of the field and you take the other half?” and they just had an awful reaction and said, “No you don’t need to play … we need to train.” The boys were just not having it, so we went up to some of the coaches and said, “They aren’t sharing the field with us. Do you think it would be okay if we played with them?” I remember so clearly that one of the coaches who had never seen us play said, “They can’t play with you because you’ll lower them and make them lose.” ”

“They (teachers) get the impression that you’re a slut and that you’re asking for it. They think that you’re not as interested in education, unfocused and that you’re obsessed with boys. They don’t give the same treatment to other students who they think are more focused, and they leave you out of certain activities. When you don’t understand something, instead of explaining it to you they yell at you. This is discrimination on the basis of just their mindset.”

““Some teachers have the courtesy to pull you aside. Some teachers do it in front of everyone like other teachers and peers… it’s humiliating.””

“If you’re bunking with a bunch of girls, it’s still okay.

I’ve gotten caught bunking with a group of guys, and it was much worse for me. If I were with a few girls, they would let me off with just a warning, but because I was with guys, the teachers called my parents.

The teachers told my mom, “She was bunking with five boys. She is a girl. She was alone and roaming around the school. Please tell her to have some etiquette, have some manners.”

I was held back in the office while the boys were sent back to class. It wouldn’t have been the same if it were a guy with five girls.
”

““When I was in fourth grade, I was part of the primary school choir, and we had this male teacher who used to play the guitar for us while we sang. He got really close to me, and he would ask me things like, “what’s your email address, phone number and when’s your birthday?”, he kept asking me information that I wasn’t comfortable giving.”

“He would ask me to do his work; he would give everyone else different work, but me his ‘special’ work like carrying his guitar and getting him chocolate from the canteen. As a fourth grader, I wasn’t aware of how much of this was okay. Eventually, it stopped because of summer vacation, and after that, I never went and met him.””

“When we wear crop tops, it’s really frowned upon because our stomachs are seen ….”

““When we’re sitting, it’s at the end of the day we are all tired, so we slouch...we’re all very droopy, some teachers have come up to us and said,

“you are all women, you’re not supposed to sit like this, your back should be straight, legs should be closed together.” ”

“My friend was talking about when she was in second grade, before the girls entered the class, there was a teacher that used to stand there with a ruler and measure the length of the skirt.”

““I’m not sure how much this is actually considered as sexism, but in our school, when we are talking too loudly, the teachers have definitely come and told us girls are not allowed to talk beyond a certain decibel.””

“We have this thing called video a school fest, and within that, we have a category of Indian folk dances. which some you have to wear When we wear a sari and our stomach is seen. no teacher really looks at us and says, “oh my god ! how can you show your stomach like that ?”...It is only when we wear western clothes that the whole topic “oh my god ! Your stomach is showing crops up…”

“We are all still learning what sexism is because it has been normalised to the point where it all feels normal.”

““Even the reproduction chapter in school, there are certain words a few teachers cannot even pronounce because it is so tabooed as a society. They don’t even say it in class, even though it is in the textbook.””

“I was doing a school performance, for which I had to wear a short shirt… it was the dress code for my character. A day before my role, the costume department came to me, and this was after the costume was approved…. there was this one teacher…she said, “you need to change your leggings, they’re extremely vulgar”, or “you need to tie a jacket around your waist”.”