Barely a month after advocate Vinod Matthew slapped a case on Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi for putting a breastfeeding woman on the cover of its March issue, two women in Kerala have come face to face with censorship, for participating in a bold campaign on their right to bare their breasts.
Model and activist Rehana Fathima posted two shirtless, bra-less photos of herself on Facebook, via her friend Diya Sana’s account. In one, she is holding two melons against her chest, and in the other, she is bare-chested, holding the melon in front of her face. In a matter of hours, the post was removed by the social media network, and the account was suspended for a full 24 hours.
Facebook’s policies on nudity and “vulgar” content have been criticised multiple times in the past. When artist Orijit Sen posted one of his paintings depicting a woman bathing, it was taken down, and those who shared the image on their accounts were also suspended for “violating community rules”. Fathima’s photo is simply yet another such image. This, despite the networking giant’s positive (read: no action taken) response to the Grihalakshmi image.
The censoring of her photo only builds a stronger case for the campaign, of which it was a part. Called “Maaru thurakkal samaram”, or the protest to bare breasts, it was begun by a social media user named Arathy. The act was a direct response to the comments of Jauhar Munnavir, a professor at Farook Training College, Kozhikode. Taking a dig at how young Muslim women dress themselves, he said “They tie it [shawl over their head] in such a way that their chest is not covered. A woman’s bosom is one of the body parts that attracts a man. And so it should be covered. But our girls expose some part of their chest. You know, like how we slice a small part of a melon to see if its ripe? Just like that.”
Not only does Fathima’s photo cleverly play off of Munnavir’s deeply misogynist remarks, she also contributes to the growing conversation on how women’s bodies are controlled by patriarchal society’s whims and fancies. Her activist friend Diya Sana also posted Fathima’s photos with this accompanying text: “Women, too, should ideally have the same freedom that a man enjoys with regard to his body.”
The pair have, in effect, joined Grihalakshmi, #FreeTheNipple supporters (including women like Björt Ólafsdóttir, a member of Iceland’s parliament), and numerous other breast-possessing people around the world. The objective? To desexualise breasts, to challenge the sexist double standard of accepting bare-chested men and berating bare-chested women, and to end the scrutiny, control, and restrictions over what women want to do with their bodies.
But it is clear that Facebook’s algorithm, and the larger user base, is still resistant to these attempts. What will it take to change this? Perhaps more and more people reclaiming their bodies and using social media to do it. Perhaps a long-drawn battle for policy reform and better reviewing mechanisms. Whatever it be, the solution still remains unknown.