PJ, THAT WAS A PJ! Yesterday, after months of struggling with the University administration, blocking the traffic just to get our own Proctor, marching across the University from college to college to get them to accept our demands – last night, we finally managed to get the VP of MH to get those high gates that entrap our dreams and hopes to open! We sat on the threshold of the of the Miranda House gate, marking the beginning of enacting hopeful futures – what our spaces could look like, when women are caged no more under these casteist, patriarchal shackles of society which this ‘feminist’ college also corroborates in institutionalising. We have learned our lessons on feminist principles and ethics but we quickly realised that the gap between theory and practice was huge but not insurmountable. We believe that feminist futures are possible, that new public spaces are realised through reconfiguring their nature with our presence —defying the control that institutions, families, CCTVs extend on our bodies! On 10th October, we had met Principal Jolly, where she had shown (or feigned?) sincerity in taking up our demands. When the pressure of the deadline, which we had given to them for the 30th began to sink in, they hurriedly passed incremental changes to demobilise us. Yesterday, we met again, reminding them that our demand for ending curfew is not merely about the ‘right to go out.’ It is that, but it is as much asserting that locks and surveillance, are not the answer to ‘providing safety.’ Locks and policing rather is the worst form of harassment which effectively immobilises women in their capacities to access the world. We wanted to tell them by sitting under the night sky that our strength is in our collective dreams. That together, women make the streets safer and not by abandoning them. *Join us at in this liberating yet struggling movement of "Making Bridges and Breaking Boundaries" #PINJRATOD #reclaimingspaces #mybodymychoice #identityissues #freedomofchoice #feministwomaniyan #indiangirl #everydayindia #happinessproject #struggleisreal (at Miranda House) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpmwab-nhmj/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1sfcpush0rxp3
