Off Limits

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This project has two parts.

Part 1 - Documentation. Part 2 - Action.

PART 1: Documentation

In the first part , we documented places which are off limits to women. Off limits not by law but made off limits to them by fear.

So why did women fear going to these off limit places - What is this fear of ? I asked several women - from my friends to people I met at various places in the city.

It can be classified under the following heads.

- Fear of being attacked, molestation, rape

- Fear of appearing to be a lower class woman or a prostitute

- Fear of openly displaying want or need of something which the patriarchal society hasnt deemed fit for consumption by women

- Fear of society’s retribution for not following rules ( reinforced by attacks by the so called Moral Police )

- Fear of losing face

- Fear of demeaning family

- Fear of mixing with men ( from childhood one is taught to be careful of boys and not to mix too much )

- Fear of mixing with men and women of other classes

- Fear of attracting attention from the ‘wrong’ set of people

- Fear of going against the teachings of religion

- Fear of being commented on by other men

- Fear of men looking at them as sex objects

- Fear of being perceived as non-feminine

Of the places mentioned above in different parts of the city when we went to photograph them, women were not there. From Bars in relatively middle class residential areas like Mathikere, Cooke Town, Jayanagar, to Chai Shops in Shivajinagar women were not present.Pan beedi shops in most localities , we failed to see women. Cricket and football grounds - no women. Off-limits places were everywhere.And they were off-limits because of one or many of the fears mentioned above.

PART 2: Action
Coming Soon....