ThinkHer

 I believe that a nation that has to protect its women rather than empower them has a problem. One has to understand that power hides itself in the language of protection and purity. This is where the statement, "Fundamentalism uses women's bodies as a battlefield in its struggle to appropriate institutional power", by Malathi De Alwis, makes sense. Malathi de Alwis ©Colombo Telegraph Malathi de Alwis is a pioneering Sri Lankan anthropologist, feminist scholar, peace activist and a teacher. Born on 6 October 1963 in Sri Lanka, she earned her PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. She spent her career unpacking the uneasy alliance between gender and nationalism. During the turbulent decades of civil war in Sri Lanka, she stood out as a voice that asked difficult questions. Her work has been indispensable to understanding Sinhala Buddhist nationalism and its construction of the good woman. Her PhD work, titled- Maternalist Politics in Sri Lanka: ...

In today's society, teaching is often a preferred profession for women as it is perceived to have a work-life balance. Additionally, it also doesn't threaten the traditional gender roles of nurturing and caregiving. But in 1848, when Savitribai Phule, India's first female teacher, took up teaching, she was stepping into something dangerous. She was threatened and attacked not just for teaching but for daring to teach those who weren't supposed to learn. Savitribai Phule was born on  3rd January 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra. These were the times when access to learning was restricted by gender and caste. Patriarchal customs, incorrect religious interpretations, and colonialism ensured that access to education rested in the hands of a few men. Savitribai, along with her husband Jyotirao Phule, challenged every institution-family, patriarchy,  religion, custom, and state that denied education for all. At the age of 9, Savitribai married 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule and moved...

I had heard of Bertha Lutz before—as a women’s rights activist, a leader in Brazil’s suffragist movement, and one of the four women who signed the UN Charter in 1945, the document that officially established the United Nations. That’s how she’s usually remembered: a fierce feminist, a diplomat, someone who stood her ground at the world’s most important political tables. But what surprised me was where else her name shows up—not in laws, monuments or even street names, but in frogs and lizards!! It turns out Bertha Lutz was not only a political force, but also a trained biologist and naturalist. Before her name became tied to international diplomacy, she was studying amphibians at the Sorbonne and working as a researcher at Brazil’s National Museum. Her background in biology wasn’t a footnote—it shaped the way she thought, worked, and fought. She approached activism with the same discipline and curiosity she applied to science. I’m often struck, in conversations with fellow researchers,...