When I read the Supreme Court Bench’s disappointing judgment on same-sex marriage, it was a line from Lalithambika Antharjanam’s autobiography that came to my mind. Remembering her youthful struggles against the barbaric oppression of women in the traditional Malayala brahmin caste, she wrote: “Never had my heart trembled so hard than when I placed my hand on that forbidding door”. She was referring to the terrifying, dehumanising, violent structure of restrictions under which Malayala brahmin women lived. Over centuries, she says, innumerable women had battered it with their heads. Until one day it collapsed at a small push, soaked with their blood and tears.
Continue reading Same Sex Marriage, Welfarism and the Indian Supreme Court: Thoughts from KeralaTag Archives: Supreme Court India
Statement on the imminent arrest of Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde : Alan-Thaha Human Rights Committee, Kerala
The Alan-Thaha Human Rights Committee, Kerala, expresses its deep concern and anguish over the imminent arrest of prominent intellectuals Gautam Navlakha and Anand Teltumbde in the Bhima-Koregaon case.
The Heavy Footsteps of Brahmanical Dandaneethi : The Hadiya Case
It appears that for women in India, the modern judiciary is fading and in its place, the terrifying face of Brahmanical Dandaneethi is emerging. A ten year old rape victim is denied abortion, women fleeing dowry harassment are to submit to the rule of local elders and leaders of ‘family welfare committees’, and now, in the Hadiya case, the judges declared that unmarried daughters should be under their parents according to ‘Indian tradition’.
Read more: https://thewire.in/169543/hadiya-islam-conversion-supreme-court/
Women Have Been Branded Liars!
Guest Post by ANUBHA SINGH and SURABHI SHUKLA
The recent Supreme Court judgment in the case of Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar & Anr. (Criminal Appeal No. 1277 of 2014) has once again brought to light the concern shared by the larger society about the ‘misuse’ of Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter “IPC”) and the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. This concern has been raised many times in the past (and present) and the judiciary has gone to the length of labeling this ‘misuse’, especially that of Section 498-A, IPC, ‘legal terrorism’ (in Sushil Kumar Sharma v. Union of India JT 2005 (6) SC 266.)
However, what has changed this time is that through this judgment the Supreme Court has endorsed and legitimized the common stereotype that women exaggerate and fabricate stories of violence to seek vengeance against their husbands and matrimonial families. Continue reading Women Have Been Branded Liars!
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 