Enchanted by South Asia

India 2019

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PENTAX67 TTL

Born and raised in India, I learned at an early age that deep-seated patriarchal and misogynistic values can work to silence women’s voices. The act of speaking up demanded courage, and I saw an extraordinary example of it firsthand in 2004, when a dozen middle-aged women staged a protest over the death of Thangjam Manorama, a young woman who was taken into custody by soldiers and later found murdered, her mutilated body showing signs of sexual assault and torture.

The Manipuri protesters stood naked, holding banners that said, “Indian Army Rape Us” and “Indian Army Take Our Flesh.” They took aim at the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which had granted extraordinary powers to the Indian Armed Forces to maintain law and order, and which had led to incidents of extrajudicial executions and brutality against women. While the women’s demand to repeal the act was denied, paramilitary forces vacated their headquarters at the Kangla Palace in Imphal, where the protest had taken place.

And so, at the age of 16, I found my heroes in a group of disenfranchised women using their voices and bodies as an instrument of change in a conservative society. Ever since, I have been trying to understand how women living in far-flung corners of this country, with little to no privilege, are asserting themselves in a culture that oppresses and subjugates them.