Tamil Nadu: Girls fling dupattas in air to welcome feminist writer Geeta Ilangovan; video goes viral

Geeta Ilangovan’s articles published under the title ‘Her Stories’ were translated into Tamil and given the name ‘Dupatta Podung Thozhi’ (Wear your dupatta friend). It is an anthology of 30 essays.

In her writings, the 51-year-old author speaks about how women are controlled and told how they should dress and behave.

On March 13, a group of 167 students from the Tribal Welfare Schools of Kalvarayan Malai in Tamil Nadu had gathered at a private school in Kallakurichi for a camp focused on eradicating child marriages. Ilangovan was scheduled to interact with the students when scarves were thrown off the school building.

This was perhaps the most heart-warming response a feminist author could receive as a show of endorsement for her work.

According to a Quint report, Ilangovan said the girls told her that they didn’t like to wear dupattas but were forced to.

“The first essay in my book is about body politics and why girls are asked to wear dupatta, as they hit puberty, to cover their developing breasts,” Ilangovan was quoted as saying by Quint.

“They found it fit to greet me with this liberating act of discarding their dupattas. Throughout the day they did not wear the scarves back on,” she added.

Ilangovan said she was pleasantly surprised at the site of girls flinging off their dupattas of various hues from windows to welcome her.

The camp was organised by Aware India, an NGO which has been conducting gender workshops for Tribal students of Kalvarayan Malai for the past six months, the report said.