 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. We are being joined by Geeta Hariharan who is a writer and also one of the founder members of Indian Cultural Forum. Well Geeta, welcome to NewsClick. Geeta International Women's Day is discussed every year and a lot of issues crop up and get talked about in the media by the people. But what makes this International Women's Day different in terms of today's context in India? Yes March 8th International Women's Day has become something of a joke year after year so you've got you know all kinds of the commercialization of the day and so on. But this year I think all that pales because in India specifically we actually have something to talk about on International Women's Day which is that in the last few months we've seen something of a transformative moment in the history of this country and it's not specifically to do with women's issues but women who have actually led a struggle, a fight, a calling the entire nation to attention certain important issues. And what really makes this exciting swastika is the range, the diversity of women who've been involved. What I'm of course referring to is that December 15th soon after the police went into Jamia in response to the protests against the CAA you had women sitting in a place in South Delhi that very few of us knew about Shaheen Bagh. And so you suddenly had nannies and daddies. Now we all talk about the daddies of Shaheen Bagh. And for me as a writer this is a meeting point of you know in fiction and mythology and our tales. We always talk about the grandmother as a wise figure. This is a very powerful cultural symbol here. And this is actually now part of our political life. So the daddies of Shaheen Bagh might have initially responded to what was happening to the students to a fairly local kind of issue. And in a fantastic and deeply organic and political way it became what the nation, what people in this country, Muslims yes but also others feel about the CAA. What it's going to do to our constitution. In fact Geeta this particular protest in Shaheen Bagh brought conversations back into our daily lives that of our constitution that of our citizenship you know what does it mean to get disenfranchised as well and all led by women. Yes of course this is a fabulous thing but what I wanted to say was the generational nature of it. The fact that you know you don't have any more this kind of artificial divide that we think of as the educated the students the housewives. So suddenly you had this incredible powerful link between women students who are actually speaking up taking the lead on various campuses and there being in conversation in dialogue with these women who don't need classes who don't need a degree to understand that the CAA which we are being told is actually going to confer citizenship not take it away. These women don't need a class to understand that there is something here that religion is being linked with citizenship and this was alter the nature of the Indian Republic forever. And yes of course the constitution as a symbol the symbols they have chosen are let me say symbols that unite people that they don't they don't divide people. I think a lot of stereotypes are also being broken which is that the received wisdom especially in the current dispensation is that Muslim women are voiceless they need help they need to be protected from triple talak it's a very patronizing you know sort of a patronizing view of the other. And here they have shown they've shown these people that we can speak up for ourselves. Let me also add that they've shown the Molanas and their own religious leaders as well that look we're not going to listen to everything you say this has happened in Shaheen Bagh it's happened in Kanpur it's happened in Lucknow where those who confer leadership on themselves you know spokespersons for that religion have been sent back here. Yeah yeah and Akita what would you also say about the fact that the nature in which this protest has just grown from one location to another location and then this expression that was being used that another Shaheen Bagh it has really brought in in a moment where India finds itself struggling with the CAA and NRC that has been instituted by the Modi-led government the hope that it brings and the peacefulness of this protest what would you say about that? Well this is the amazing thing because you know here are some of the testimonies of these women are so moving it's like a crash course in how you get politicized it also shows that any citizen is capable of being politicized there is no such thing as somebody who is outside this realm of political awareness or political participation because a couple of the women have been recorded to say that you know my legs were trembling I was I was shaking when I spoke for the first time in public but slowly I became used to it and now in these few months they have seen so much they have seen people shooting they've seen people making all kinds of violent speeches against them in the run up to the assembly elections but they've also seen how their voices are carrying that there are Shaheen Baghs now all around the country we have seen that the government that the powers that be are taking note that this is something important they are negotiating with interlocutors that the Supreme Court has said and even more important and this is why I linked the students and the women in Shaheen Bagh they are learning they are there and they're in a situation where all kinds of people are coming and talking to them about say what is happening Kashmir what is what does caste do to the country what are students problems and a couple of them have been quoted to say that you know when I when this is all over I'm actually going to learn more about these things so and there's a library there as well so there is this amazing kind of coming together of a learning process not only for them but for all of us who visit yeah to see that my god these women are managing everything including the security when I went to Shaheen Bagh the the you know the I was patted down by a woman and we ended up hugging each other there was a moment of solidarity there my god we can do this so I think this is the message that's going all around the country I guess coming back to the fact that there is this one day in the year that gets assigned to talk about you know rights for women in India's context India is also seeing this for the first time isn't it well I let me say about March 8th that you know we will know that we are that many steps closer to an equal world when we don't have just one day for women but 365 days and I think that is what the women in this country are at this moment working towards the dadis of Shaheen Bagh and the young women who are speaking up on campuses and on the streets well thank you Geeta for joining us on news clip so a very happy International Women's Day and more power to women and keep your voices in your protest going on thank you for watching news clip