“We always start with a question — that’s where everything begins,” says Himalini Varma, the director of AJWS grantee Thoughtshop Foundation. Her organization, co-led with her partner Santayan Sangupta in 1993, has transformed the lives of thousands of young women across West Bengal, India, by approaching change through this lens: opening up space to …
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Like most Indians, Ritwik “Ritu” Chakravarty was raised with a strict notion of traditional gender roles. But for Ritu, who identifies as a trans woman, such rigidity never made sense. “My name, Ritu, means ‘weather’ or ‘season,’” she says today. “And my gender was fluid, changing like the weather.” This openness has allowed Ritu to …
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In Medabas village in rural Mewat, India, no girl had ever finished high school — until recently. Instead, girls were married off by the time they were teenagers, and locked into a life of housework, farming and raising children. But when AJWS grantee Alwar Mewat Institute of Education and Development (AMIED) entered Medabas and encouraged …
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Thoughtshop Foundation — a longtime AJWS grantee based in Kolkata — uses a unique approach to expand what’s possible for girls and women within India’s deeply patriarchal, restrictive society. They call it “design thinking,” and for a growing collective of young people across the state of West Bengal, it has proven life-changing. Thoughtshop developed beautifully …
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Samreen grew up Lucknow, India, in a household where her mother wasn’t allowed to do anything without her father’s permission. But when her father passed away, Samreen began to question the patriarchal norms that ruled her family. When she connected with AJWS partner Sadbhavna Trust, her world opened entirely. Sadbhavna Trust runs leadership workshops and …
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In a tiny, bright blue room tucked away from a chaotic market street in Kolkata, India, 24-year-old Munmun Das has created the neighborhood’s only safe space for girls to express themselves freely. Munmun is one of nearly 150 youth mentors trained by Thoughtshop Foundation to lead a Youth Resource Cell and guide conversations about taboo …
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“As a child, I was awestruck by what nurses could do. And yet I knew that was an impossible dream for me,” says Ruksana Khatun. Ruksana saw her life spread out before her: She’d be forced to drop out of school to work in the fields and support her family, as her father had a …
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RAJASTHAN, INDIA — At 23, Manju Kumari is already a sarpanch, the elected head of her rural village. And she’s one of a rising number of women in India filling these political positions, ever since the government reserved a proportion of village leadership seats for women. But in the face of longstanding gender inequality and …
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“Hope for Her Daughters” tells the story of Rekha, who was married at 12 and had her first child at 13. She earns her living by sorting out recyclables from garbage, a difficult and sometimes dangerous job that’s fallen to extremely low-income families in India. Rekha presumed her daughters would have no choice but to follow the same path–until she got involved with Kashtakari Panchayat, an AJWS grantee.
Read MoreOn December 16, 2012, 23-year old Jyoti Singh was raped by six men while riding on a bus in New Delhi, India. The attack reportedly lasted over two and a half hours, and Singh died two weeks later in Singapore from her injuries. Four of her attackers were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.
Read MoreParashat Miketz continues the narrative of Joseph and his brothers. It describes Joseph’s ascent to power, the trust he earns from Pharaoh and his power as a minister over all of Egypt. It also mentions, in passing, a woman whose life becomes entwined with Joseph’s: Osnat, daughter of the Priest of Ohn. Osnat receives a bare four sentences, and is never again mentioned in the Tanach. Who is she, and what can we learn from her presence in the text?
Read MoreParashat Vayishlach contains the harrowing story of the rape of Dina and its equally violent aftermath. Dina “goes out” to see the daughters of the town of Shchem. Instantly Shchem, the son of Chamor, sees her, takes her and defiles her. He then falls in love with her and asks for her hand in marriage. Dina’s father, Yaakov, is unable to offer a response, remaining silent and waiting for his sons to return home from the field. As a form of retaliation, two of Yaakov’s sons, Shimon and Levi, slay all of the men of Shchem and take the women and children as captives.
Read MoreParashat Bereshit, the first parashah in the cycle of weekly Torah readings, contains two monumental “firsts”: the creation of the first humans and the first act of violence. I’m always struck that these two events take place in the same parashah. And each year, I reflect on how their power and centrality shape our ethics in the modern world.
Read MoreAs I stood in the magnificent Magen Avot synagogue in Alibag, India, I felt the sweat trickle down the side of my face. Though it was hot, the sweat was born out of nervousness and intense regret, not the sweltering heat. The High Holidays were around the corner and I was at the synagogue teaching …
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