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Trigger Warning: References to rape and suicide
“Rape them first, then commit suicide,” Ajay Unni, the BJP candidate from Kerala, said on January 20.
This was his reaction to the news of the suicide of U. Deepak, originally from Kozhikoden, after a video shot by passenger Shimjitha Musthafa accusing Deepak of sexually harassing him during a bus journey went viral on social media. Ever since the news of Deepak’s death, people on social media seem to be out for blood. Men now come out of their houses with cardboard boxes covering their bodies.
However, much of this discussion risks flattening a complex issue into a pair of victims and villains. A feminist lens urges us to resist this simplification—not to deny the devastating loss of life, but to ask harder questions about why social media has become a site of justice and whose voices are routinely ignored.
For decades, women in India have navigated public spaces that are anything but safe. When I first started riding the bus alone to school and sports meets, my mother asked me to hold onto a safety pin to poke those who decided to come too close.
Sexual harassment on buses, trains and on the streets is a daily reality that is often minimized as a misunderstanding or dismissed as an inconvenience. Police stations remain intimidating spaces where survivors are often insensitively interrogated or shamed. Therefore, social media has emerged, albeit imperfectly, as an alternative forum for solidarity.
When a woman records or posts an accusation online, it’s often not an attempt to become judge or jury, but an act of desperation to be questioned. Framing the Kerala case solely as reckless online behavior risks obscuring this deeper truth: women are turning to digital platforms because the institutions supposed to protect them have repeatedly failed to do so. That was the #MeToo movement.
At a time when “feminism” has become the big bad “f” word, it’s important to note that the movement does not celebrate public shaming or mob justice. Deepak’s death is a tragedy—and feminist ethics demand that we hold space for that loss without using it as a weapon against women’s speech.
This incident in Kerala should not be used to discipline women into silence or to absolve institutions of their failure. Instead, it should force us to face an uncomfortable reality: when systems fail all, social media fills the vacuum, often with irreversible consequences. The task before us is not to silence voices, but to build structures where speaking out will not come at the cost of another life.
Wordsworth
Son meta-preference Although it frankly goes without saying, son meta-preference refers to the number of married people up to 49 who want more sons than daughters and vice versa according to the 2022 National Family Health Survey. This article in The Hindu talks about how there were wild celebrations when a 37-year-old woman in Haryana gave birth to a daughter after 18 years to a 37-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman in Haryana. Dhani Bhojraj Village.
Toolkit
“Women Mathematicians from Around the World” is an exhibition featuring 20 extraordinary mathematicians from different countries – from the Congo to India – on a whiteboard full of equations. Women in most parts of the world, especially in STEM, face a formidable glass ceiling in the form of societal pressure to have children or due to institutional apathy. This exhibition at the International Center for Theoretical Sciences in Bengaluru and the Raman Research Institute also features Neela Nataraj, Institute Professor in the Department of Mathematics, IIT Bombay. He is now working on mathematical problems related to liquid crystals. The exhibition, which opens a window into the lives of these famous mathematicians, will last until March 15 and is open to the public.
Oh!
Average Indian Feminist Girls: They will not pay the same bills. She won’t marry a guy who earns the same. She will not marry a man who is unemployed. Cooking and housework are slavery. You want a rich man with a high income. Also want him to cook and do housework. Where is the equality?
Venom, user X with 72.5k followers
The people we meet
Andaleeb Wajeed,
Andaleeb Wajeed, a writer who has written over 50 books, says it is not uncommon for people to think she is oppressed because she wears a hijab. Speaking at The Hindu Lit for Life literary festival, she said that when she was traveling to Chandigarh for a children’s literature festival, she came across a question board for authors. “The main question in black was ‘How did you overcome oppression?’ I was shocked. I said I wasn’t oppressed at all,” she said, adding that she laughed. Andaleeb is focused on writing every day and writing books covering a range of topics where her main characters are especially empowered. “I write two chapters a day,” she says, and hopes to publish many more books.
Published – 25 Jan 2026 21:34 IST
