This year was quite a roller-coaster ride for women everywhere. From getting certain laws in place to fighting against discrimination to simply putting women out there and being heard, we saw it all. While we all did our bit, these 10 women certainly rocked the feminist chart in 2015. Take a look at these badass, awesome and inspiring women.
Nikita Azad: A twenty-year-old English student from Patiala ruled the Internet this year with her #HappyToBleed campaign. After the Hindu Sabarimala temple’s board president, Prayar Gopalakrishnan, refused to allow women inside the temple, she launched the campaign as a form of protest. “Aren’t all the men who enter the temple premises of the blood formed in their mother’s uterus?” she wrote in a column for Youth Ki Awaaz. Women around the country used the hashtag in a bid to do away with the taboo against menstruation in the county.
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Masooma Ranalvi: For the first time in India, 17 women from the Dawoodi Bohra community have publicly protested against female genital mutilation (FGM) in India. The petition was started this month and is getting support from several women in the country who have been subjected to FGM. Despite being outlawed in several countries, the practice still continues in the Bohra community. “It is historic that 16 (other) Dawoodi Bohra women, who’ve all been subjected to FGM, have signed the petition openly,” said Masooma Ranalvi, the first signatory of the letter, who is also a founder of a Platform of Bohras called Speak Out On FGM.
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Karuna Nundy: An Indian lawyer, Karuna was one of the attorneys responsible for striking down the controversial Supreme Court law that made posting ‘offensive’ comments on social media a crime. The court ruled that the amendment was a restriction on the freedom of speech. “The law made speech that people found annoying or inconvenient criminal. Anyone with such a complaint could go to a local police officer and say, ‘I find this annoying.’ A police officer could then arrest you for that. But what is ‘annoying’ wasn’t defined anywhere. [Getting that law struck down] was something that was very satisfying, with quite a direct impact,” she told Huffington Post.
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Remya Ramachandran: Remya’s Facebook post about her marriage has been shared more than a thousand times this month. What was so special? Remya called off her engagement and explained her decision on Facebook posting, “To all those asking for the date of my wedding, the family that before the engagement had said that they only wanted me, post the engagement they were demanding 50 sovereigns of gold and 5 lakh rupees. As I am staunchly against dowry and because I believe that buying anything for a man and his family who are so unreliable is a loss, I don’t want to continue with the marriage.” Her post stands out as the perfect beacon of hope to hundreds of girls out there who give in to dowry because of the pressure of society. You go Remya!
Image via IndiaTimes
Sushma Verma: The 15-year-old girl from Lucknow has become the youngest postgraduate student in India this year, who is now pursuing research in Environmental Microbiology from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University. She is also the youngest student to have cleared the 10th board exams, as recognised by the Limca Book of Records. She became a graduate at a young age of 13.
Image via Journal Observer
Mahua Choudhory: Mahua has invented what can be called the Super Condom. Along with a group of American researchers, this Indian woman has developed a new non-latex condom which contains antioxidants and can kill the deadly HIV virus even after breaking. “We are not only making a novel material for condoms to prevent the HIV infection, but we are also aiming to eradicate this infection if possible,” Choudhory, assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center’s Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, said.
Ishita Katyal: Ishita is the youngest Indian speaker at the coveted TED Youth Conference in New York. The fifth grade student delivered a speech titled ‘What do you want to do now’. It’s a question a lot of kids get asked but Ishita’s talk spoke about how children can make a huge difference too. Watch her inspiring talk here.
Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan: BMMA has petitioned the Bombay High Court seeking a ruling against the ban for women in the Haji Ali mosque in Mumbai. Women have been prevented entry to the mosque mausoleum since 2011, with its trust saying close female proximity to the tomb of a revered saint is “a grievous sin” in Islam. “A positive ruling would set a precedent and would have a wider and long-term effect,” BMMA co-founder Noorjehan Niaz said. “How can you bar somebody from entering the sanctum just because she is a woman? The decision was anti-women and anti-Islamic and we had no option but to go to court. It was the last resort,” she added.
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Nungshi and Tashi Malik: Beginning their journey in 2009, today twin sisters, Nungshi and Tashi have managed to complete the Explorers Glam Slam, and become the first Indians and youngest people to do so in two years. They’ve successfully scaled the Mt Kilimanjaro (South Africa), Mt Everest (Asia), Mt Elbrus (Europe), Mt Aconcagua (South America), Mt Carstensz Pyramid (Australia and Oceania), Mt McKinley (North America) and Mt Vinson Massif (Antarctica). “Belonging to a place where gender bias and violence against girl child is not uncommon, we decided to stand for ‘Her’ as she climbs tough mountains through life’s journey,” said the twins in an interview with The Better India.
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Poonam Kumar: Poonam Kumar’s wedding this year came to a halt when she came up with an unusual demand for her groom: I’ll only marry you if you pledge to sponsor the education of 11 girls. Her groom, Sandeep readily agreed to her demands. Poonam’s demand falls in line with the government’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign. Female literacy in the northern state of Haryana, where Poonam hails from stands at 66.7 per cent, compared with 85.4 per cent among boys. Poonam’s demand was based on the fact that her husband runs a coaching center and was likely to understand the value of education. “I will have to be an equal partner in ensuring that the pledge is fulfilled,” she said.
