Bhopal is a city that generally shies away from making national headlines. But on Friday, the city was a talking point as hundreds of girl students of Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) protested a move by the college to curb their right for free movement and to dress as per their choices – even if it meant short skirts.
Ban on short skirts, harsh hostel timings: girl students boycott classes in Bhopal
The issue once again has put the spotlight on women's rights – which get clamped down by our patriarchal society, as per the whims and fancies of a few men who have taken it upon themselves to decide what is right or not right -- for women. But hold on before you write them off: the women are fighting back-- to win back their rights, their dignity, their freedoms. A fight that we thought they had won back at the end of the last century.
Watch this video from Syria, where women are burning burqas after the Syrian government seized back their city from the terror outfit ISIS. The preachers of extremist ideologies had forcefully tried to put them behind the veil.
Back home in India, we have activist Trupti Desai who along with her Bhumata Brigade has been campaigning hard to win equal rights for women in religious places. She successfully entered Shani Shingnapur Temple in Maharashtra and Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai.
The harassers of women in the cyberworld are getting it back too. We had actress-turned-writer Twinkle Khanna taking apart the trolls in a well-crafted satirical piece she chose to call 'Why I Googled Leander Paes in a wet T-shirt' published in a national daily.
There could be many a man out there who openly voice support for the rights of their opposite sex. US president Barack Obama was the latest from the 'man species' to pledge allegiance with the womenfolk.
Happy birthday: Barack Obama tuns 55, declares himself a 'feminist'
But dear men, you need to do more. Respect every woman and her freewill. You need to do more to break down the chains of gender bias that run back centuries.
You don't have to set her free, but just stop trying to pin her down. Or get ready to bear the brunt of her anger.