KERALA- Women in Kerala, India started a unique protest after a ‘sexist’ remark by a professor Jouhar Munavvir T of a teachers’ training college. Munavvir commented that Muslim girls at the training school were not wearing the hijab properly and were exposing their chests like “sliced watermelon” on purpose.
These remarks triggered a widespread protest across the state by students. According to the Indian media, Many student organisations protested outside Farook Training College, where Jouhar Munavvir T teaches, seeking action against him. The protestors were carrying sliced watermelons and demanded strict action against the teacher. They also decided to send the slices of watermelon to the professor.
“We will flood him with watermelons,” a student activist P Ajitha said.
“I am upset with hypersexualisation of breasts by people. Whether it be professors in college or social media users seeing a model breastfeed and pose for a magazine. So I and my husband posted pictures of me nude,” shared another activist.
As per Indian media student activists also started sharing bare-breasted photos on Facebook, which were removed by the social media app.
The inspiration for the ‘watermelon protest’ was drawn from the ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign to respond the attack on women in a pub in Mangaluru in 2009 by the activists of rightwing fringe group Sri Ram Sene.
Few Muslim students have favoured the professor’s point of view and carried out protests against the ‘watermelon protest’.
