"The kitchen is not for the woman alone, nor is the office for the man." Shabana Azmi inspiring young Muslim women at the Led By Her fellowship convocation ceremony is a must watch...
Thanks to Led By Foundation for the footage!
Thanks to Led By Foundation for the footage!
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We are over 100 million Muslim women in India and around 2 million actually get to go to
00:10college.
00:11So, even when we do get educated, so few of us are really visible.
00:17The kitchen is not for the woman alone, nor is the office for the man.
00:24You dear students, armed with your fellowships, are stepping into the world that has changed
00:31possibly forever.
00:36Nothing is as it used to be, and we don't know how long this new normal will last.
00:43But as the saying goes, this crisis is also an opportunity, and it is up to you to make
00:50it so.
00:52Led by her fellowship is the first leadership incubator for Muslim women in India.
00:57All of you have high potential, all of you are high potential college-going women who
01:04are poised to become leaders in the workplace and support a socially sustainable and equitable
01:11growth story of India.
01:15We know, however, that India is a country that lives in several centuries simultaneously.
01:22We have people living back to back in the 19th, 20th, 21st century, and our people at
01:30any given time and place encapsulate all the contradictions that come from being a multi-religious,
01:38multi-lingual, multi-cultural society, and particularly when it comes to the position
01:45of women.
01:47So on the one hand, we have had early on a woman prime minister, then we've had a woman
01:53president, we've had many women in important corporate places, but it's also true that
02:01huge inequalities persist in women's access to education, health care, physical and financial
02:09resources, and opportunities in economic, social, and cultural spheres.
02:17We are over 100 million Muslim women in India and around 2 million actually get to go to
02:25college. So even when we do get educated, so few of us are really visible, so few of
02:33us have the opportunity to climb up the social and financial ladder.
02:40That's unacceptable and must be unacceptable, not just because it denies us access to
02:48something as basic as a decent job, it also denies women the ability to be truly
02:55independent.
02:57We are constantly told to prioritize things in life.
03:02Men over work, families over work, cooking dinner over work, taking care of children
03:11over work. A lot of these are seen as women's responsibility alone.
03:20But women's movements all over the world have made us realize that no space is inherently
03:27gendered. The kitchen is not for the woman alone, nor is the office for the man.
03:35Know that you can own a space you wish to occupy.
03:40Almost 70 years ago, my father, the noted Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi, wrote in his iconic
03:52poem, Aurat.
04:10Now, I'll read out the translation by Pawan Verma, which says,
04:23Life lies in battle, not in patience and restraint only.
04:28Life's veins have blood, not trembling tears only.
04:33In what opens and flies lies fragrance, not in tresses only.
04:38There is a paradise, too, beyond a male's embrace only.
04:44To its free rhythm, you have to dance in ecstasy.
04:47Rise, my love, you have to walk along with me.