INDIA: Jeans, one of the favorite punching bags of Indian patriarchs who have persistently blame the attire for the moral degradation of youth has made a comeback in the news.
Earlier this week, the newly-appointed chief minister of Uttarakhand, Tirth Singh Rawat has blamed “ripped jeans” for all that ails the young.
At a workshop organized by the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Mr. Rawat passed cynical remarks on an unnamed woman he met on a flight. The woman in his words was “wearing boots, jeans ripped on the knees, and had several bracelets on her arm”. He also questioned her morals for running an NGO and wearing ripped jeans.
Rawat, a member of the BJP government’s right-wing party, further described ripped jeans as clothing that was symptomatic of moral turpitude and criticized parents for permitting their children, especially girls, to wear them. His comments led to widespread condemnation in India, especially among the youth.
The chief minister rebuked Indians for “running towards nudity” and said that while people in India were wearing ripped jeans, those abroad were covering their bodies properly and doing yoga.
The opposition Congress party while reacting to the event asked Rawat to apologize to all Indian women or resign.
Read Also: A Great Pair Of Jeans Never Hurts
Senior party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday replied to his misogynistic comments and shared photographs of PM Modi and one of his cabinet colleagues ‘showing their knees’.
The head of the Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal also called out Rawat on Twitter for “propagating misogyny.”
Among many such artful replies to Rawat’s statements, was writer-director Tahira Kashyap’s. The writer shared a post on Instagram that reflected her bold aura and sense of humor.
In the throwback picture, Tahira has donned a floral blue and white bikini, flaunting her shaved head with a pair of sunglasses standing next to a pool. “At least not wearing ripped jeans,” she captioned the post, cleverly alluding to the fact that Indian women are shamed for everything they choose to wear and not.
