R.W. Connell in her introductory book ‘Gender’ mentions that gender is the key dimension of personal life, social relations, and culture. She also emphasizes that the massive amount of prejudice, ideology, myth, misinformation, outright falsehood are some major factors influencing our everyday life. Gender discrimination is one of such factors that has been affecting people’s lives, especially in terms of our country because of the traditional patriarchal society. Gender discrimination may encompass sexism and is discrimination towards people based on their gender identity or their gender or sex differences.
According to the World Economic Forum, the 2019 Global Gender Index reveals that Nepal ranks 101st out of 153 countries on gender parity. In the United Nations’ Development Programme’s (UNDP) Gender Inequality Index, 2019, Nepal ranks 115th out of 163 countries for gender equality. Besides, United Nations Women found that Nepal ranks 101st out of 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index, 2019.
Amidst such gender disparity going around in the world, the cry for feminism seems essential. Feminism incorporates the position that societies prioritize the male point of view and that women are treated unfairly in society. The feminism movement includes the effort to eradicate such gender stereotypes to establish educational and professional opportunities for women equal to men.
Young people should be involved in the feminist movement, mainly because it empowers people. The most common conception is that only females can identify themselves as feminists and that feminism only benefits the woman. The misinterpretation of feminism as a rivalry of the ‘superior sex’ should be debunked, as feminism does not equal superiority for women; it rather strives for the equality of sexes. The deconstruction of the patriarchal gender roles will allow people to live their life the way they want rather than being tied down by the restrictions presented as ‘traditional values’ for generations. Feminism is a movement that anyone despite their sexes can join, which will benefit society.
One such group working in such feminist movement is ‘The F Project Nepal’ which incorporates artists collectively creating a feminist revolution. Nirvana Bhandary started the project in October 2019. The project comes from the understanding that all the members are feminists creating art through their writing, poetry, photos, videos that reflect their identities. Most of the project’s work is done through digital activism via Instagram, but once the nation-wide lockdown ends the group is aiming to have art exhibitions, workshops, and performances to convey the ideologies of feminism to more audiences.
The project which had started as a small collective of just 7 members in the initial phase has now become a platform for a lot of young women to share their voices via their writings and artworks. Through these artworks, a message of self-love, experiences of womanhood, discrimination, love, sex, self-esteem, and many more are being discussed in the platform.
Along with the showcasing of such artworks, ‘The F Project Nepal’ also conducts a Q/A session now and then which is very insightful to take a glimpse at what women go through and feel about certain things such as the greatest challenge faced as a woman in Nepal, challenges faced because of identifying oneself as a feminist, difficulties during the period, experiences of sexism and so on. Conversations on these topics are essential, and this project is providing a safe space to discuss such things.
A zoom interview session with the members of the F project brought to a more insightful discussion on feminism and the differences seen after being a part of this movement:
What made you become a feminist?
“I didn’t realize I was a hardcore feminist until I joined this group. I used to believe in things before but I never spoke out, I was shy and afraid to do so. People women around me didn’t speak out, so I felt odd. Before joining the project, I knew I was a feminist, but I never really spoke about it. So far, I’ve been writing about my personal experiences and being opinionated.”
- June Karkee
“For me, feminism has always been about not having any distinction and discrimination regarding gender in our society. After being a part of this project, I’ve realized that there are so many things that need to be talked about, things which we don’t normally see but should be talking about. Once you start speaking out, you get to know that there are a lot more people that can resonate with you. Feminism has given me a different outlook and perspective to not only look at females and society but also patriarchy and men and having opinions; it has given me a wider lens to look at the world.”
- Smriti Shrestha
“I remember myself always being concerned about women’s issues, even starting with my own family. Being raised in a joint family, I’ve seen the differences even in raising me and my brother; although not from my parents but other relatives, and I’ve always found this to be problematic. The subjects I study in college are all related to it and working with the project has made me given more insight into what feminism is, and it’s been an interesting journey ever since.”
- Darshana Chand
The writings and images of the project have received wide recognition and admiration from the audiences, but some people do not support this movement and even go on to write comments full of hatred. How do you deal with those?
“For me, I think I’ve become quite resilient in terms of dealing with online harassment. Ever since I had my art exhibition, I knew there were people opposed to this idea, but I also knew that they were powerless at the end of the day. They can say and write whatever they want on their screen, but what else can they do? They’re always hidden behind a fake username. So my strategy for my page as well as the F project is to block those people and delete those comments because there’s a difference between a constructive dialogue and hate. So addressing these when the people are not taking any sense and being offensive is just to delete and block. What my perspective is that these comments should not be bringing our morale down, but we should continue doing what we believe in.”
- Nirvana B.
“It all started with that one post, I’ve never been subjected to such hate before and that post took on to Twitter and it became a huge deal overnight. On a personal note, I felt extremely bad about it. Since everybody around me started talking about it, what I realized is that there are always going to be a certain number of people who are not ready to listen at all, no matter how much we try they’ll never be bothered to understand our perspective. That’s when I started to choose to not invest my time and energy in such pieces of stuff. As far as possible, I try to have a constructive conversation with such people, but if they’re not ready for it, staying away from them is the last resort.”
- Darshana C.
Many people still seem to be confused about who relates to feminism. Is feminism only associated with women, or can men play a role in this movement as well?
“I think it’s very important to have male allies because 50% of the world’s population is male. The thing we’re talking about is patriarchy; every sector be it education, politics, economy, all are ruled by men. To change this, men should be involved in the movement as well. It’s essential to have women raise their voices and men supporting their perspective.”
- Nirvana B.
It’s high time that the concept of feminism should be understood by people to begin the end of gender oppression. Prioritizing feminism and anti-oppression should be made into an individual and collective effort. The present situation of Nepal suggests that various forms of gender disparity and oppression still exist and what we need is not only the struggle against gender roles but patriarchy and other forms of oppression as well. Thus, whether you should speak up about your struggles or experiences as a means to get one step closer towards a collective goal of eradicating such stigma of the society is an important question that requires due consideration.
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