We Cannot Forget Ragini.

Prince Tewari, son of BJP leader, and panchayat chief, KripashankarTiwari, stalked, and murdered a 17 year old in Lucknow.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/…/frontpage/story_166525.jsp…

1) Why has only, The Telegraph covered this?

2) What is the role of the ' Anti Romeo Squad' , who knew of Prince Tewari stalking and had let him off earlier, with warnings?

3) Prince Tewari believe that he can force someone to marry by stalked and harassing her.

He murdered the person he was forcing, to marry. 

4) Prince Tewari and SonuTewari , hit Ragini, with their motor bike. Ragini was on a bicyle. Prince Tewari murdered her. Ragini's 13 year old sister Siya was with her.

5) There were 50 witnesses, who didn't help.

A witness is someone who has the power to change the story. Each of us, can be that Action Hero.

Is this the time for #NotAllMen ?

This hashtag has been trending on twitter in light of the new years eve incident.

To whom so ever initiated this:

Of course not all men commit violence against women. 

Many women and girls are warned often by many men (brothers, father, husband, 'protectors') and society at large to fear another man, to "be careful" ie to be careful of another man. 

Before this goes into a man vs women reductionist view - 

In an environment of collective outrage and shock after the new years eve incident , #NotAllMen is defensive ,and this is not a time to be defensive, but to understand , but to empathise and step in. This is the time to take collective responsibility , express solidarity, and even go beyond solidarity to saying that violence against women affects you too in one way or another. Without empathy, and with this hashtag, you are becoming the opposite of the hashtag you suggest. 

shout out to Sachin Kalbag for expressing a similar sentiment, where he proposed a #WeWontTolerateIt 

Moments Of A Long Pause

Read viewing options below before pressing play.

Moments Of A Long Pause was commissioned by the Bronx Museum of Arts towards the exhibition,  Street Art, Street Life in 2008.

Moments of a Long Pause is a two channel video installation based on interviews with men and women on the streets of 5 cities in India (Delhi, Agra, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Calcutta) . The video brings men and women in a conversation about dealing with sexual harassment, sexual violence, flirting, play, wooing, 'teasing'.  The dialogue between the 2 monitors explores feelings of shame, blame, guilt, denial, fear ,resistance. 

Video edit space supported by Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany.

Medium- 2 channel video. duration- 18 minutes loop

Thank you : Annie Zaidi, Hemangini Gupta, Dana Roy, Gogol, Smriti Chanchani, Umang Bhattacharya, Nupur Mathur, Timo Boeker (edit). 

The original two channel video has been edited to be viewed on one screen for youtube only.

To screen Moments Of A Long Pause to a larger group : 
( To view the version above)


i) Permission.
Write to us at blurtblanknoise@gmail.com, subject titled Moments Of A Long Pause.
Moments of a Long Pause is now online, and we encourage you to share
BUT but taking permission prior screening is good practice :)
We promise to be prompt in writing back.

ii) Documentation
Document the screening. Take photos. Videos.
Tweet #MomentsOfALongPause @blank_noise
Write a short report ( 250 words) .
Send it our way.

ii) Support
screening Moments Of A Long Pause, requests a screening fee and we encourage you to contribute generously. Email in for bank details.

If you would like to install Moments Of A Long Pause, as the two channel video installation ( 2 monitors facing each other with audience sat in between), write to us and we can send you the original files along with a tool kit for installation.

email : blurtblanknoise@gmail.com

subject titled " Moments Of A Long Pause "

Intervened. Changed The Scene. ( until July 31st )

There are men against sexual violence. We just want to hear you louder. Tell us how you stood up against sexism #SafeCityPledge

Loose Women and Other Urban Indian Tales

Anuradha Sengupta
Jalebi Ink


Dear all,

I am writing this to share a recent incident that brought me face to face with many issues I feel are of wider importance, and to use this as a collective sounding board for possible future action.

My idea is simply to tap into the wider experiences and insights of the community of people this may reach, who are invested in creating a more just and equal environment for everyone. Since some people reading this may not know me personally, I will begin with some information on myself.

I live in Kolkata. I am a freelance journalist and travel around a bit. I run an award-winning indie youth media collective called Jalebi Ink. I am also a single mom, by choice. I haven't faced any significant negative situations about my choice/status.

Till now. Here in Kolkata.

Two days back, a nasty run-in happened with some older boys (17-18) in my colony (Behala) and with their parents.

These boys had been harassing my 13 yr old son for a while. But he wouldn't let me intervene saying no, they will make more fun of me. Things came to a head in an incident in the park where these boys caught hold of him and in public pulled his pants down while the rest watched and clapped.

What I did and what followed was illuminating.

I went to the leader of this gang and asked him to cease immediately. The gang was there. They shrugged it off with non-chalance. Your son is a liar, they said. This is all in fun anyway. Shoulder shrugs and a lot of smug laughter.

An altercation followed with the boys, and their parents and neighbours which turned nasty and in the next 15 minutes, I (a five foot one inch woman) was surrounded by a pack of these boys and their parents, and even their maids. It was like a chakravyuh. They shoved me around. They proceeded to hurl every known gendered and cliched abuse. They threatened to beat me and my son up. "I will kill you and your son," the boy said. I slapped him and his pal who had smugly admitted that he had "only touched my son's pants". The boys came at me with their fists balled up. But were held back by some friends.

There were onlookers - no one did anything

They came to my house after that, with more people. Same thing happened. More abuses - and extolling of virtue of their sons. "Bring out your son" "Chool chhaata mohila" (short- haired woman), "we know what you are", "frustrated" "loose" "harlot" "your son is abnormal" etc.

My mother and father (who has Parkinsons) stood behind asking them to leave with folded hands. He was told to get lost.

The neighbours did nothing - they walked past on the stairs, looking away.

I filed a complaint. They too did - ostensibly as I had "assaulted" these 17-18 yr olds.

The cops came and asked my son questions. They were decent enough. They told my son the bullying will stop. All that. But they may have done that as I had called up several of my media friends who in turn would have put pressure on them. They said we'll see what we can do and went off.

The father of the leader of the pack of boys incidentally is a local real estate promoter with links to local councillors. The house they stay in is forcibly occupied and belongs to someone I know.

It is sad what this place has become. I feel that the more women get out of stereotypes, the more reactionary society becomes.

A chool chhata (short haired), pant pora (pant-clad), westernised, single woman = 'loose character', as per Bengali middle-class morality. This is a dangerous trend that I have noticed over the years - the simmering violence within middle-class Bengalis and the growing tendency to ostracize independent single women based on warped notions of morality. It's mob mentality in its most vicious form, the shocking part being that these are the so-called 'educated' bhadroloks, not uneducated people from deprived backgrounds.

Like a friend pointed out, the external trappings of middle-class society have changed. Everyone thinks they're 'modern' now. But the mindset is still feudal. Add to that a growing propensity for violence, and you have a dangerous cocktail.

It's like living in the dark ages. Everything they said to women then, they are saying now. Women have to have male figures around as "protectors" and "guardians".

The police fellow's pen had hovered for a while over the "son of" section in his report when I said write my name. When I fill govt or even other forms (as in banks etc), there is a predominant "Wife of" "Daughter of" section. His glance had changed when I told him I am a single mom.

Ever since my father was diagnosed with Parkinsons, my mother has taken over all the document, bank etc work completely. And yet, they still ask her to fill in who she is a wife of or daughter of. It is frustrating. When will this end? It was well-known writer Githa Hariharan, who slammed home the point that a mother can be the sole guardian of a child. Before that, a father's signature would always be required on forms. (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120229/jsp/opinion/story_15193043.jsp#.UWZSOZNTCSo)

I want to drive home to these boys and their parents that what they did was wrong on so many levels. What they did to a kid. Their strange warped perception of women. And the fact that they think it is fun to bully a 13 year old. The fact that they invaded my space and abused me. They did not bother about an old and ailing person. The boys who labelled me as a 'fallen woman' were teens, some of them going to the new crop of 'international' schools that have mushroomed in Calcutta. They have a music band. And yet they have such regressive mindsets.

I am looking for ideas and suggestions. From media stories, justified legal intervention to interventions or campaigns in the colony maybe. Blank Noise is a great organisation that does some amazing campaigns on harassment faced by women. Check them out here: http://blog.blanknoise.org/

Regards,
Anuradha Sengupta

Safe City Pledge #Delhi

Are you the kind of brother who creates space for his sister to discuss street harassment? #SafeCityPledge What's your Safe City Pledge?

Safe City Pledge #Kolkata

What's your #SafeCityPledge?

Man Prayer

Safe City Pledge #Kolkata

Your attention please.
Taken the #SafeCityPledge yet?

Keep sending them in.

Tweet your pledge. add #SafeCityPledge / Make it your fb profile photo 
Email in - blurtblanknoise at gmail

Think. Pledge. Act. 

Understanding , Underwearing

It is not difficult to imagine a right-wing vehicle reacting strongly to what they perceive to be contaminating influences of the 'authentic' that they zealously guard. It is, in fact, even easier to imagine that a political fabric that has resorted to every kind of staged drama of 'authentic' to build its own inner confidence. The metaphor of an inviolable/invincible male, that perceives its female property being appropriated by alien seduction as violation of its own sovereignty, in this case is hard to avoid. Much like Katrina in Namastey London finally came around and dumped the white boy and embraced Akshay's nourishing Desi masculinity to corroborate the crisis in nationalist masculinity.

V-day hullabaloo has escalated in most big cities (with Sena/Bajrang Dal folks destroying shop windows displaying V-day pretty things etc.)over the past few years. Increasing flows of global capital into our cities have accelerated the consumption and production of 'global' cultures on cityscapes. This aggravates the right and pokes their masculine anxiety even more. The recent attacks on women are a specific kind of lament of shaky nationalist masculinity losing 'control' over its women.

So what does the Pink-Chaddi campaign signify in this crisis? A direct and provocative opposition/rejection of oppressive masculinity. The obvious image of underwear signifiying feminist politics of personal becoming political. The cliched argument against this technology of radical opposition will be that it is the preserve of urbane, pubgoing, cigarette-smoking women who exclude other sections from their expressions of dissent. To me that is boring critique as it is obviously one form of feminist subjectivity that is legitimate and expess-worthy, of the many that can exist. In fact, it is probably better off being exclusionary than urbane bubblegum women being 'inclusive' by purporting to speak for large numbers that we can't possibly represent.

I want to poke the question of the celebratory/emancipatory role played by the Pink Chaddi here. The provocative image of underwear carries on its shoulders histories of clothing and containing of the body as a modality of power, the Chaddi definitely comes with baggage. The notion that a symbol of repression that is rooted in the ''vernacular'' packaging of the Hindu right has to evoke a symbol of freedom that is rooted in mass cultures of production of the erotic (pink + chaddi) carries, to my mind, troublesome implications that the way out of oppressive ''vernacular'' patriarchies are in global commodity chains. Of course, numerous examples from Bollywood come to mind, where the elusive, defiant sexuality of the woman is captured and contained once she submits to the hero's overtures and to the proposition of being owned. She is then, a good woman, a non-threatening one. The PCC turns the symbols upside down, and shows the bad, pubgoing woman as having accessed freedom. It sticks with the binaries of sari-vernacular-submissive, leather-skirt-defiant though. My question remains that in the act of opposition to oppressive nationalist masculinity, does freedom have to be contained in the Panty and coloured Pink? Does Victoria's Secret hand us the freedom that Hindu right moral police try to destroy?

REACTIONS

How have you felt every time you ignored a stranger's eyes stripping you naked?

How often have you been a mute witness or spectator to street sexual violence?

How often have you whistled, passed remarks, leched, intimidated a female stranger, just for 'fun'?



By sharing testimonials of participating bloggers and members archived at the Blank Noise blog I am not speaking of poor 'victims' and outsiders as a minority. Every woman, girl, young or elderly, from any socio economic background, any skin colour, any body type, 'pretty', 'fair', 'fat', 'ugly', 'slutty', 'modest', 'bitchy', 'smart', 'over-smart', 'shy', 'scared', 'bold' has experienced it. She could be walking alone, in a group, with her parents. It could be 6 am, 7 am, 9 am, 12 noon, 4 pm, 8 pm, 10 pm, and it could happen in your neighbourhood, right outside your house, in the outskirts of town, in the heart of the city. She could be dressed in a salwar kameez, a school uniform, a sari, a pair of jeans and still experience it. Blank Noise clothes campaign " I did not ask for it" has been receiving clothes worn by women at the time of sexual violence. Each sender is taking a stand when she sends in the garment- she says, ' I did not 'ask for it'.

As much as incidents of sexual violence that shock and make news call for an alert alarm, one cannot deny the fact that sexual violation on the streets takes place ever single day by almost every woman in a variety of different forms. It is accepted and normalized because it is 'expected'.

How does the public react to reported incidents of streets sexual violence/ 'eve teasing?' Does this mean more rules for the average Indian male's wife? daughter? sister? Or does this information manifest itself in the financially secure/ independent women incubating themselves in private transport, paying an extra fee per month to block unwanted phone stalkers, carrying pepper spray in bags, mobile phones and being on hyper alert each time they leave home?

Is the public ready to see women as autonomous citizens that can access public space, unapologetically? While I understand and am framed in the cultural construct of being someone's daughter, sister etc I also choose to see myself as a citizen, as a member of public as a non 'victim'. Is society also reinforcing belief systems of men as beings to fear and women as victims that need to be protected?

Protected from whom? Who are the offenders? Violators? Criminals? Perpetrators?

By 2004, 6 months into starting Blank Noise I was able to lift my camera to the 'perpetrator's' face and photograph him. There was a range of encounters. Not only was the camera a defence mechanism/ tool but also the point of dialogue and engagement with the 'offender'.

Since then I have photographed men from different socio economic background for a wide spectrum of 'eve teasing/ molestation' incidents.

At a traffic signal around noon, I see a man making 'sexual gestures' with his tongue towards me from his car window. Shocked, a few seconds later I begin to photograph him. He continues to make gestures, this time suggesting that I am 'mad' and drives off.

While distributing pamphlets in Majestic bus depot one evening, a hand comes to grope. Am already in the 'Blank Noise mode' and the camera is out. I reach out for his collar, pull him, get pushed in return but manage to photograph him. He disappears like most others into the crowd.

Sipping coffee in a café, I can feel someone's eyes on me. I return the look with a glare and ask him if he has a problem. He smiles, nudges his friend and says ' nothing, nothing at all'. This continues for 15- 20 minutes, at the end of which I hand him a Blank Noise pamphlet and photograph him. I spend the rest of the day answering his phone calls. " Sorry. It was only a crush. I liked your eyes. I am not the 'sexual' type of man. It was only a crush." I have to admit, he was not sexually intimidating, he was annoying.

While addressing street sexual harassment it is important to understand the context and the nature of the offence. While interviewing men on the streets of Delhi I got familiar with one kind of 'eve teaser'. He was the hopeless/ helpless wooer. There were a range of responses to the question " how have you approached a woman you are attracted to on the street", many people had responses that would be categorized as ' stalking, and 'unsolicited conversation'. From their point of view they had not committed an offence. A shopkeeper at Sarojini market said I will keep following her and approaching her " kabhi na kabhi toh hasseena maan jayegi". Another young man said he walks upto women and introduces himself, for which he has been slapped on several occasions( his peers added). Likewise one is familiar with love revenge stories behind the acid attacks. Once I met a girl whose throat had been slit for saying NO to a man who desired her. What are the cultural wooing references? With the idea and image of masculinity evolving what are the kind of men and male behaviour our society is creating?

This post has been published at blogbharti for their spotlight series.


YOUR TURN NOW: THOSE RARELY ASKED BURNING QUESTIONS-
Mail any question for Blank Noise to blurtblanknoise@gmail.com or please leave it in the comments section at this post