Rural Women Unite to End Discrimination against Widows
An unjust aspect of rural society in India that often goes unnoticed is the discrimination faced by widows. Although as far as the legal position is concerned they have completely…
Patriarchy
Why Mrs. Feels Different to Our Mothers and Grandmothers
Introduction Watching Mrs. with my family was an experience I had not quite anticipated. As the credits rolled, I was left with many thoughts, but none of them were about…
Towards an Inclusive Gender Just Code in India: Women’s Rights are Non-Negotiable
This article on the UCC is divided in two parts. This is part 1. For the original detailed work by this author, please see here. The Common Civil Code (the…
Digital Jingoism and the Gendered Economy of Hate: Unveiling Islamophobic Patriarchy in India
Following the Pahalgam attack, there has been an increase in online calls for sexual violence against Kashmiri Muslim women, demonstrating the pervasiveness of Islamophobic patriarchy and hyper-nationalist jingoism in India’s…
There Is No Right Way to Grieve: A Daughter’s Courage and a Society’s Misogyny
This is a personal reflective commentary inspired by the story of Arathy, a survivor of the Pahalgam attack from Kerala, intertwined with my own experiences of grief and loss. N.…
Why Men Should Shut Up About the Burdens of Masculinity
Patriarchy has started a new PR campaign – rebranding the male jailors as emotionally wounded inmates. In The Indian Express, for instance, Shraddha Upadhyay declares that while “masculinity poses an…
Bas hua, judge sahab!
On 28 March 2025, 2600+ activists, academics, lawyers, journalists, artists and concerned citizens from across movements and different sections of society wrote to the Chief Justice of India regarding the…
The Hetero-Patriarchal Panic of India’s Minority Communalists
In 2024, the Supreme Court of India noted that what is primary in the determination of the minority character of an institution is not the “existence of a religious place…
Misogynist and Patriarchal Judgments on Crimes Against Women and Children
A Press Conference was held today by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) at the Press Club of India, New Delhi on the recent trend of anti-women and anti-children…
No, Equality Doesn’t Mean Separate Roles for Men and Women
The emergence of feminist politics has led to a patriarchal counter-revolution that pays lip-service to “equality” while insisting that women and men should occupy different, separate places in society. In…
“Sultana’s Dream,” Sexism, and Female Empowerment
December 9 was 145th birth and 93rd death anniversary of the iconic Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. She had emerged in the 19th century to revolutionize the concept of womanhood, feminine…
Meeting, Dating, Eating, Mating and OYO
OYO Rooms, also known as OYO or OYO Hotels & Homes, is a successful Indian multinational budget accommodation and hospitality chain that operates through leased properties and franchised hotels, homes,…
Navigating Sexual Autonomy Within the Institution of Marriage
“Violence against women in all its forms is a human rights violation. It’s not something that any culture, religion or tradition propagates.” -Michelle Bachelet[1] The Supreme Court of India is…
Concerns arising from the suicide of Atul Subhash: A feminist response
The tragic suicides of Atul Subhash and police constable, Tippanna Alagur in Karnataka have once again given rise to volatile debates on the ‘misuse’ of the laws related to gender…
Taliban, Women’s Equality and Hindutva Nationalism
Tavleen Singh is a well known columnist. In a recent column (Religiosity is sick, not Secularism, I.E. 8 December 2024) writes about the barring the women studying medicine in Afghanistan.…
A Special Woman
Manjuben is a picture of hard work, independent judgement and a strong desire to be rich so as to be able to call the shots in her professional relations with…
Why I Don’t Empathize with Atul Subhash
On December 9, 2024, Atul Subhash, a 34-year-old techie based in Bangalore, died by suicide, alleging unfair alimony demands from his estranged wife, Nikita Singhania. In April 2022, Singhania had…
Luring a Man, Sexual Coercion, and the Patriarchal Narratives
There are thousands of self-help books, articles, and social media pages that promise to reveal the secrets to luring different types of people—whether it's a romantic partner, employees, employers, or…
Lee Lakeman and The Whoredom of the Left
The radical feminist Lee Lakeman has spent her life calling out patriarchy for its oppression, the left for its bankruptcy, neoliberalism for its cruelty and organizing women to fight back.…
Yes, All Men and Women Who Stay Silent Perpetuate the Culture of Violence with Impunity
Recently, there was a debate on social media regarding `#Not All Men’. This phrase is popularized online by mostly the Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) to depict that not all men…
Tinderised Relationships and Uberised Families under Capitalism
Family is celebrated as an institution worldwide, transcending cultural, religious, social, and territorial boundaries. From slave societies to feudalism, and from the mercantile and industrial revolutions to the capitalist digital…
How long will women are going to fight in the trenches?
All kinds of things keep me up at night like a nocturnal owl. It has been happening more and more in the last couple of years. Last night was one…
Disentangling Khap Preeminence: A Feminist Critique
by Syed Wajahat Ali & Zuberiya Nauman “ women’s freedom is the sign of social freedom” ~ Rosa Luxemburg Abstract Women have to go through a life and…
The Patriarchal Politics of Security
On August 9, 2024, a female doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, was brutally raped and murdered in a seminar room on the fourth floor, where she had gone to rest…
The Patriarchal War on Indian Women
On August 9, 2024, a female doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, was brutally raped and murdered in a seminar room on the fourth floor, where she had gone to rest…
Who should Jaya (Bhaduri) Bachchan be?
Very recently, I watched the Bachchan vs Dhankhar showdown during a Rajya Sabha session. The treatment of Jaya Bachchan, an actor turned politician since 2012, and a 5th time elected…
Feminists in Resistance condemns the shamefully misogynistic, terrifying, discriminatory, regressive attitude of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
Mr Ranjeet Kumar AgarwalPresidentInstitute of Chartered Accounts of IndiaICAI Bhawan, New Delhi 700 002 Subject: Feminists in Resistance (FIR) condemns the shamefully misogynistic, terrifying, discriminatory, regressive attitude of the Institute…
The Patriarchal Mystique- Al-Ghazali and the Subordination of Women
In his Book of Counsel for Kings, Al-Ghazali sums up all that a woman has to suffer and endure because of Eve’s misbehaviour in the Garden of Eden. When Eve…
The Main Question of Patriarchy: Can Men be Raped?
It was not many years ago that social media was flooded with images of young men across the country taking out micro-protests, threatening to go on what they called “marriage…
Are Dalits Descendants of Asuras? A Reflection on Student Politics and Asura Discourse
No concept should be accepted as axiomatic without undergoing rigorous intellectual debate. One such notion for debate is the elevation of mythological figures like Ravana and Hiranyakasyapa (Hiranyakashipu) as cultural…
Controversy at Kolkata’s ICAI International Conference
If an individual wishes to avoid contact with persons of the female gender, he is at liberty to do so, in his personal, private spaces. However, such a person insisting…
How Women Were Publicly Humiliated in a Programme in India and Nobody Protested
Israel's unending war against Palestine - with due support from the Western World - is widely known. Less known is the fact that representatives of extreme patriarchal Judaism have unleashed…
From Subordination to Partnership: Reinterpreting the Impact of Eve’s Creation
Why Are Misogyny and Patriarchy Universal Phenomena? A significant thread of Western culture, in which we currently live, can be traced back to Ancient Greece. From there, it was transmitted…
Working Women And Empowerment
My Facebook acquaintance recently posted photos of delivered dishes along with the remark, "Seems like women are getting more educated." I became agitated upon realizing that this was directed towards…
Blame Her
From dawn till dusk, and dusk till dawn, she toils within the confines of an unjust patriarchal framework as a grandmother, mother, sister, lover, girlfriend, wife, partner, professional, worker and…
Gender Justice is Very Important Everywhere, but must be Rooted in Local Culture—Not Imposed by the West
Gender justice and equality are very important for humanity’s progress. This is now widely recognized and rightly so. However what needs to be questioned are the claims of the west…
Challenging Heteropatriarchy
Like any other popular movement, the radical message of feminist liberation is always at risk of being diluted by dominant ideologies. In the current conjuncture of neo-fascist resurgence, such dilution…
Combat Patriarchal Mindset at AMU!
The ascendancy of Hindu nationalism in India has led to the sharp demarcation of religio-communitarian boundaries. In response to communal attacks on Islamic identity, the Muslim gentry has reinforced a…
The Political Logic of Militant Feminism
On February 3, 2024, Rishika Singh wrote a report for Indian Express entitled “Indian men are facing a loneliness epidemic and we’re not talking about it enough”. The very title…
Single, but not alone! National Consultation on Single Women
A 3-day consultation on Single Women was organised by Jagori at the India International Centre from 26th- 28th February 2024 in New Delhi with the objectives of refocusing the spotlight…
Story of Atashi… and many more like her
A lot of the news nowadays covers stories of abominable crimes surfacing in a remote rural pocket of West Bengal. While looking at some of them on television, I often…
International Day of Girl Child and 101 other measures that do not support Women
"Girls have outperformed boys, once again!" flashes on social media and news channels, all across Jammu and Kashmir after the result of 10th and 12th grade examinations was announced in…
Combating Everyday Gender Stereotypes in the Courtrooms
The Supreme Court of India recently published a Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes[2], which highlights how gender-unjust terms are used in pleadings, orders, and judgements to reiterate common stereotypes about…
Gang rape as symbol of India’s political culture
The horrifying video clips showing Manipuri women being stripped and raped, followed …
The Empowered Tribal Girl Who Fought Against Sexual Harassment
From being a school dropout in 8th standard due to molestation to working as a fellow for Udaan fellowship to spread awareness on molestation and sexual violence, here is the…
#Shout is scathing indictment on patriarchy and misogyny
“I don’t think rape is about sex. It is about violence and the need for power… “We talk of sexual violence. We don’t talk enough about patriarchy. We don’t talk…
Men, masculinities, and gender equality
Both men and women are still imprisoned by patriarchy in the vast majority of our globe. Together, we inhabit a world of social logic where prejudice, injustice, and exploitation taint…
Silent mountains of Uttarakhand
Living in the mountains is not easy as opposed to the hype that is shown to us these days through social media platforms. It is a hard life particularly for…
Digital Femininity and Indian Patriarchy
In India, the hegemonic discourse on girls’ engagement with social media has been fixed on the way they are using digital tools to express their sexuality and construct visual intimacies.…
Seeking Accountability In Romantic Relationships
When bell hooks speaks about the radical potential of sisterhood, she is informed by her experience as a Black woman in a white-dominated feminist space. When Virginia Woolf asks…
The Curses of Patriarchy
Patriarchy cursed me, I laughed and move on They said you are a female, your birth is a burden I survived and thrived, flourished and bloomed Confronted their stereotypes and…
Women in the balancing act
The other day, my newly appointed domestic help (Premdevi) was morose and after a lot of persuasion, I got to know the reason. She narrated that her husband who is…
From a Pati-Parmeshawar or a Lord to a Partner
How the conservative patriarchal Family Ideology operates and is challenged in the courts …
The Patriarchal Regulation of Female Sexuality in India
Since the beginning of 2022, more than 650 serious crimes have been reported against women in India. This statistic encapsulates various egregious crimes that include rape, assault on women, kidnapping…
Living room as a space of feminist solidarity
Didi kabhi shadi mat karna (Didi, never get married). Durga’s voice reverberated in the house during our morning ritual of chatting over a cup of piping hot tea. Durga, one…
Gender roles and their Blurred Envision
by Madhubrota Chatterjee and Kaibalyapati Mishra The themes for International Women’s Day have always been evident to link gender equality with every sphere of societal…
Patriarchal capitalism and marriage in 21st century
In the Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare defines relationships as marriage of true minds, where sovereign individuals love each other to overcome all impediments in life with the tempest of unchanging…
Misogyny at its best in CBSE English paper
Passage blames ‘feminist revolt’ for teenage indiscipline. Content of a reading comprehension passage in a CBSE’s Class 10 English examination, held on Friday: “What people were slow to observe was…
Patriarchy: The Struggle Continues
In a day when America is ruling over a global Empire maintained with violent enforcement to insure universal subordination to its will; and in a day when a military-style…
“A Certain Terror”: A White Male Perspective on Being an Ally
Although the rather inelegant term “allyship” had not yet become part of the social-justice lexicon, I first bumped into the complexity of being an ally in 1988 when I belatedly…
Annual Subscription
Join Countercurrents Annual Fund Raising Campaign and help us