A Note on women's Equality Day.....

26th August, Women's Equality Day has come a long way, right from the suffrage struggle to #MeToo movement, women of the world are fighting battles every day, in and out of their homes to find equal footing. But how is this equality to be 'imagined' and 'accessed'? For me equality begins with visibility, a visibility that needs to be acknowledged and respected. This visibility begins with access to public spaces, extends to social spaces and has yet to make a mark in the political space. Third world women have to launch movements such as, 'Occupy streets'/'Why Loiter' to safely access public spaces at night. They have to deal with the threat of being abused, humiliated and shamefully "auctioned" in mock deals on the social media and they still have to fight for 33% reservation in the Parliament in India. If a woman's visibility is appreciated, from public space to public sphere, from the streets to the Parliament and her dignity is protected inside courtrooms by taking punitive actions against sexual violence, then we would have truly achieved women's equality. The empowered visual representations of women in the fantastical DC comic world has to be translated into an empowered reality through progressive change and affirmative action.