Ever wondered what flashing sanitary napkins in public would be like? Well we just found out. The #PadsAgainstSexism, an awareness campaign initiated by German artist Elone Kastratia, has found its way into the conservative society of India and we love it.
The students of Delhi’s Jamia Milia Islamia have taken inspiration from the international campaign and have started decorating their campus and its surroundings with sanitary napkins covered with messages.
The idea they say, is to create awareness about sexism and feminism in a creative way that cannot be ignored. In our society where talking about periods is taboo, these youngsters decided to play up on the shock value to garner attention.
The campaign has proved to be a great way to tell Indians about the evils in the society and why we need to deal with them right away!
Elone’s campaign was the result of a tweet she read online; imagine if men were as scared of rape as they were of periods. She came up this brilliant way to spread awareness on Women’s Day and went around town putting sanitary pads in public places with messages.
While the response in Delhi, as expected, hasn’t been too encouraging the students are not stopping anytime soon. While some have gone to the extent of saying that this campaign is wastage of pads that could have been donated to villagers, the one thing the campaign has managed to do is get noticed and create a stir.
The campuses saw sanitary pads with messages like, “Period blood is not impure, your thoughts are,” and “Kanya Kumari, Gandi Soch Tumhari.”
The message talks about the sexism that women face every day, be it as part of their daily commute, walking on the road, at their work place or even at home.
While Germany’s Elone wants to stop the rape culture, victim-blaming and gender inequality the students of Delhi hope to bust taboos related to menstruation and misogyny.
We certainly love their way of getting their message across and hope to see the same in other cities too. Perhaps the squeamishness of seeing a pad out there in your face will help create awareness about crimes that we generally choose to ignore. What do you think?
Image courtesy: Pads Against Sexism, Facebook
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