I don’t remember stepping out of my house without a scarf when I was in college. I wasn’t protecting myself from the sun or pollution but from the uncomfortable glares of strangers. Over the years, I stopped carrying a scarf unnecessarily and dealt with those glares in other ways. That’s right, I’m not gonna wear a scarf boy—you’re gonna have to clean up your mind!
Turns out, our society has a strict code of morality that applies to women and their clothing. It is somehow acceptable for people to tell a woman what to wear, and judge her if she doesn’t follow the arbitrary rules. Interestingly enough, even if you do follow the so-called rules, you won’t have it easy in the real world.
But guess what? Last we checked, what a woman (or anybody else for that matter) wears, is none of anyone’s goddamn business! And, that’s what TV actress Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya said when a troll questioned her dressing sense. Take a look:
The actress is currently shooting for her show, Khatron Ke Khiladi in South Africa and was recently seen on Crime Patrol. While the host talked about crimes against women, ironically, a troll decided to ignore all of that and focus on her outfit. He asked her why she didn’t carry a dupatta and wrote, “Crime petrol episode me aap dupataa kyu nahi pahanati hai”
Divyanka gave a befitting reply and said that she did it so that people like him could start respecting women regardless of what they wore.
Taaki aap jaise bin dupatte ki ladkiyon ko bhi izzat se dekhne ki aadat dalein! Kripya khud ki aur apne aas paas ke ladkon ki neeyat sudharen, na ki aurat jaat ke pehnaave ka beda uthaayen!
Mera shareer, meri aabru, meri marzi! Aap ki sharaafat, aap ki marzi! https://t.co/tzv5CaIlte— Divyanka T Dahiya (@Divyanka_T) May 31, 2021
She wrote, “Taaki aap jaise bin dupatte ki ladkiyon ko bhi izzat se dekhne ki aadat dalein! Kripya khud ki aur apne aas paas ke ladkon ki neeyat sudharen, na ki aurat jaat ke pehnaave ka beda uthaayen! Mera shareer, meri aabru, meri marzi! Aap ki sharaafat, aap ki marzi! (So that people like you start treating women sans dupatta with respect. Kindly educate yourself and others around you, and stop bothering about women’s clothes. My body, my honour, my wish. Your decency, your wish!)”
Now, one would expect that people would learn their lesson from Divyanka’s savage reply, but surprisingly, that didn’t happen. Another user accused the actress of demeaning the troll and tried to convince her that he simply liked her better in a dupatta. Here’s what she replied:
जी संभव है! यदि वह फैन हैं तो उस प्रेम को सलाम. 🙏
पर महिलाओं के परिधान पर सवाल करना अब पुरातन काल कि बात हो गई है. हम अभिनय, विज्ञान, राजनीति, इतिहास, भूगोल कई विषयों पर चर्चा कर सकते हैं ! दुपट्टा अत्यंत तुच्छ विषय है उस मुक़ाबले. https://t.co/BduFP4d0lg— Divyanka T Dahiya (@Divyanka_T) May 31, 2021
The Yeh Hai Mohabbatein actress said that it was highly regressive to question a woman’s dressing sense. She added that there were many other topics of discussion but a dupatta shouldn’t be one of them.
Well, to the troll asking about the dupatta and the other gentleman trying to convince her of his intentions, here’s the thing—women don’t dress to please you! We laud the actress for educating people about the fact that what women wear is their personal choice and no one gets to question that. More power to you Divyanka!
Feature Image: Instagram
