i have a backlog of entries to post, and NO time. Will hopefully get to it this weekend, which is such a funny thing to say on a Monday. I came back and just hit the ground running.

Today is women's day, so we are so busy with educational events and street plays and awareness activities. There is a production of the Vagina Monologues with Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, and Eve Ensler tomorrow night and all proceeds come to us, which is fantastic.

Trying to get sponsors for the event was a bit of a challenge; one man refused to support anything containing the word "vagina," and i couldn't help but wonder where he thought he came from.

Anyway.

Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei will visit our centre tomorrow and nobody really knows who they are so no one is at all interested. This is funny, because sometimes famous cricketers or hindi movie stars come and everyone gets hysterical.

Anyway. Working on a proposal sheet to give to them when they come; would be great if they got us some funds for our crisis centre as part of this Women's Day push.

So strange to read Saturday's special "women's day" newspaper, and all the front page coverage of wonderful empowerment projects and powerful women, and then turn the page and read:

1. a report about how some guy in delhi doesn't have to serve the rest of his sentence for raping a mentally challenged girl because he has "repented and agreed to marry her"

2. a letter from someone asking for better footbridges because it's hard for "women and the infirm" to climb stairs

3. a report of some woman in a rural village who had her hair pulled out and her nose cut off because her son was having an affair with a girl in the village. And of course everyone is outraged and some surgeon is repairing her face for free... but they still haven't arrested anyone in the case although of course everyone knows who did it.

I could go on....

so it's.... interesting? I think there must be a better word.

I guess it's a slow process to determine how to change gender roles and preserve the best elements of this culture.

1:46 p.m. - 2004-03-08