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The Hindu
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Gender Agenda newsletter: Ma-behen-beti-bahu
Ma-behen-beti-bahu Around the time that Banu Mushtaq and her translator Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker Prize 2025 for Heart Lamp, a collection of stories in Kannada, several other events took place in India. On May 18, two days before the Booker win, Ali Khan Mahmudabad, an associate professor of political science in what was marketed as India's first liberal-arts higher-education institution, was booked for social media posts that Renu Bhatia, the chairperson for the Haryana State Commission for Women, had a problem with, because it 'disparaged women officers in the armed forces'. Bhatia gave interviews speaking about 'desh ki beti' being wronged. Many students and colleagues came out in Mahmudabad's support. The other event was the inclusion of journalist-turned-politician M.J. Akbar in a multi-party delegation sent off to Europe, to represent India's stance post the Pahalgam terrorist attack and Operation Sindoor. The Network of Women in Media, India, condemned this in a statement, saying, 'Many women journalists who said they had been subjected to predatory behaviour, sexual harassment and/or assault by MJ Akbar over the years, spoke out during India's #MeToo movement around 2018, with at least 20 women ready to testify against him.' He had also lost a 'defamation case he filed against one of his accusers'. The third was Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, whose bio on social media platform X says he makes 'Genghis Khan look like a humanitarian', called women journalists of Newslaundry 'prostitutes' and their workplace a 'brothel'. Nine journalists from Newslaundry took him to court, and the Delhi High Court asked him to take the posts down. Each is representative of where India stands on gender right now: Mushtaq's book is a subtle commentary on women who are unheard; Bhatia's FIR is illustrative of how a woman can misuse power thrown to her by male bosses; Akbar's inclusion in a peace mission based on tragic losses suffered by women is India's ruling party telling us that in some cases, even optics don't matter. As for Iyer-Mitra, the venom he believed he could get away with speaks of a larger patriarchal structure that attempts to drag women down. Women speak in different voices: Mushtaq's subtle narratives of unheard, pushed-aside women in her book; Bhatia's ventriloquist voice mouthing the words of male bosses; NWMI's statement stemming from collective might; the women of Newslaundry who used the force of education, employment, and the knowledge of their rights, to call out Iyer-Mitra's statements as 'defamatory, false, malicious and unsubstantiated'. All the voices are fuelled by patriarchy, three of them a cry against the violence it brings; one, a reflection on where India is today. The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap 2024 puts India at 129 of 146 countries: 112 on education, 142 in economic participation, 142 on health and survival. Toolkit Students at Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology have developed a 'toolbox to boost gender inclusion'. The Genie Action Toolbox is a set of five potential areas people are likely to encounter challenges: meeting, recruitment, harassment, conflict resolution, community building. Users can query the system that will suggest solutions. Wordsworth Gender-responsive Group policies or activities that acknowledge the barriers to gender quality. These could be familial, cultural, system, or structural, and they often define gender roles. They create an environment that takes on-ground realities into consideration while planning. Last week, the Observer Research Foundation put out an article that spoke about how as India moves from coal-based to renewable energy, 'skill development in coal-dependent regions can support a more equitable transition.' Somewhere someone said something stupid I'm not a feminist really…. I can never believe that we have to fight the men, because every woman's issue is a man's issue, and if we can't fight together it's not worth it, for me it's not worth it.... Usha Uthup, musician Woman we met Hema Nayal, 40, runs a bangles-bindis-barrettes store in the village of Bhatelia in Uttarakhand's Nainital district. She remembers starting in September 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns. 'All the shops were shut but women still wanted a few cosmetics. So I put in about ₹2,000, sourced the choodi-bindi from Haldwani (the closest city) and started selling out of home. When everything opened, my husband suggested I rent a place in the market,' she says. Nayal has a full day. She starts her morning with household chores: cooking, seeing her children (a 17-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son) off to school, cutting grass for the cows. Then she heads to her job as a helper in the Anganwadi, coming in to her little triangular-shaped store that can just about seat two, by about 2 p.m. 'Kuch hi auraten hain yahan jo apne liye bhi jee rahe hain,' (There are only women here who also live for themselves), she says.
The Wire
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
NWMI Protests Against Inclusion of M.J. Akbar in Operation Sindoor All-Party Delegation
Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support . Journalist and former junior minister of external affairs M.J. Akbar was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women in the course of the #MeToo movement in 2018. He had resigned from his position in the government in the immediate aftermath. In 2021, he lost a defamation case against one of the women, a journalist, who had accused him of sexual harassment in what was seen to be a fillip for the movement. Akbar was recently named in the all-party delegation for India's international engagement after Operation Sindoor.> The following is a short statement by the Network of Women in Media, India, against the decision.> §> The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), strongly protests the inclusion of MJ Akbar in the all-party delegation for international engagement in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor launched on 7 May 2025. MJ Akbar has been accused by multiple women, most of them journalists, of sexual harassment. We believe his presence in the delegation undermines the values India seeks to project abroad.> Operation Sindoor has been pitched as a mission to protect the honour and dignity of Indian women. It was launched in response to the Pahalgam terror attack on 22 April 2025, which left several women widowed. The Operation was presented not only as a military response but as a tribute to the resilience of Indian women. In light of this framing, the inclusion in such a delegation of a figure like MJ Akbar, with a history of serious allegations of sexual harassment, risks sending a regressive signal to survivors of sexual harassment and diminishes India's credibility on issues of gender justice.> Many women journalists who said they had been subjected to predatory behaviour, sexual harassment and/or assault by MJ Akbar over the years, spoke out during India's #MeToo movement around 2018, with at least 20 women ready to testify against him . These allegations are detailed, and have been widely reported and acknowledged, with Akbar losing a defamation case he filed against one of his accusers. The court's verdict in that case in February 2021 was hailed as a landmark for women's rights and workplace safety in India.> We urge the withdrawal of MJ Akbar from this delegation, to ensure that India's representatives truly reflect the values of dignity, respect, and justice for women. The Network of Women in Media, India May 18, 2025
