You dress immodest! – Tanushree Mandal

Teaching a girl
what “shame” is
Must be the first step
for her to be
as docile and effacing;
and quite efficient
in clipping her wings,
just the right amount
for her to think
that It is her duty –
to uphold the dictum
of what society
terms as “modesty”
under the guise
of a sinister way
of controlling her Being.
She knows not to question
as her very body is
the source of shame!
So paramount and
so insidious a belief,
Always left scrambling
for ways to prove
her innocence
and her “purity”
in this conceited
make-believe-system
of centuries old patriarchy.

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Ms. Tanushree Mandal is a passionate educator and mentor. She holds an M.A. in English from Diamond Harbour Women’s University, and a B.Ed. from Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University.