We talk about equality, women's empowerment... yet we are now

Hear now the voice of Mimi Chakraborty, a woman of courage and truth, who said, “We talk about equality, women’s empowerment... yet we are now being trolled for wearing jeans. I haven’t heard of male MPs being criticized for their clothes, but when a woman MP wears jeans, that bothers an entire nation.” Her words echo like a cry from the heart of an ancient struggle — a struggle not between man and woman alone, but between freedom and hypocrisy, between appearance and essence, between the soul that seeks to live true and the world that fears that truth.

In these words burns the fire of contradiction: that a society may speak endlessly of liberation, yet tremble when a woman exercises it. What are rights, if they crumble under the weight of judgment? What is empowerment, if it is allowed only when it is comfortable to others? The ancients knew this paradox well. They taught that every great truth passes through three stages — ridicule, resistance, and reverence. In being mocked for her jeans, the woman who dares stands in the sacred fire between the second and the third, where the world’s fear meets her quiet strength.

Long ago, Hypatia of Alexandria, a philosopher and scholar, walked through the streets of her city robed not in silk but in the garments of reason and knowledge. The men of her age could not bear it. They said, “How dare she speak of the heavens? How dare she think freely?” And so they silenced her with violence. Yet centuries later, her name shines brighter than those who scorned her. Like Mimi Chakraborty, she too defied the dictates of propriety to remind the world that the worth of a woman lies not in what she wears, but in the light that burns within her.

Let it be known that clothing is but the fabric of mortal life, while dignity is woven of the soul. The garment covers the body, but the spirit of freedom adorns the heart. Those who tremble at the sight of a woman in jeans reveal not her shame but their own insecurity. For they do not see the woman — they see the crumbling of their control. Every time a woman chooses her attire, her work, her words, she exercises the divine right of autonomy, which no empire or nation has the authority to revoke.

There is also a deeper reflection here: why does the sight of a woman’s freedom still unsettle the powerful? Perhaps because freedom is a mirror, and in it, the bound see their own chains. The discomfort of the many when a woman acts freely is the discomfort of seeing truth unveiled — that their equality is still conditional, that their empowerment is still supervised. A society that fears a woman’s jeans fears the future itself — for in those threads lies the quiet rebellion of selfhood, the whisper that says, “I am my own.”

We may draw wisdom from Rosa Parks, who once refused to give up her seat. It was not about the seat; it was about dignity. Her stillness was her roar. So too, when a woman wears what she chooses and faces the scorn of many, she becomes a Rosa Parks of the spirit — quietly immovable, unyielding to the smallness of others. For no true progress is ever granted; it is claimed, with patience and courage, through acts both grand and ordinary.

So, let the generations that follow hear and remember: freedom is not a costume. It is a state of being. The attire of liberty may change with time — from robes to jeans, from sandals to heels — but its essence remains the same: the right to choose, to live, to breathe without permission. A nation that measures a woman’s worth by her garments is still learning the alphabet of equality.

Therefore, the lesson is this: stand firm in your choices. Let not the eyes of judgment turn you from your path. Dress as you will, speak as you believe, live as your spirit commands — for authenticity is the highest form of beauty. And when others are mocked for doing the same, stand beside them. Defend them, for in defending one, you defend all. The day we no longer question what a woman wears will be the day we begin to understand what it means to be truly free.