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Look at Aristotle’s blank stare. He has no idea what he’s up against.
On Monday, Dr. Urvashi Sahni, Founder and CEO of Study Hall Educational Foundation, came to Columbia to talk about her innovative educational work in India. Besides establishing schools that educate girls against all odds, Dr. Sahni recognizes that young boys must also be engaged in the work of gender justice. As you will see, she’s also super quotable; Staff Writer Andrew Wang relied on her abundance of quotations to complete this article and share her work with you.
In Aristotle’s Politics, you remember—if you did the reading—that he famously proclaims, “The relation of male to female is that of natural superior to natural inferior.”
If you thought Aristotle’s world was rough for women, wait until you hear about Uttar Pradesh. It’s a state in northern India with a population of 199 million and high rates of domestic and state violence. Its gender ratio is incredibly unbalanced at 908 females for every 1000 males due to female feticide. The literacy rate across gender is 42% and 69%, respectively.
But there’s something else going on in Uttar Pradesh. A revolution, so to speak, and its name is Prerna: Hindi for “inspiration.” The Prerna School, established by the Study Hall Educational Foundation, is an experiment in gender justice in the unlikeliest of places; here, 1004 girls and 150 boys engage in a curriculum centered around feminist thought. As Dr. Sahni notes, this isn’t about educating women to make a fiscal argument. It’s about a girl’s right to be educated and a boy’s responsibility to unpack patriarchy. Girls are taught using a “critical feminist pedagogy”; boys are taught that they have a part to play.
“Patriarchy is a social construct. It was made and it can be unmade,” says Sahni.
During the talk, Sahni primarily focused on her work with the young boys. Aged 4 to 19 years old and coming from families with an average income of $120/month, they participate in weekly critical dialogues on masculinity, violence against women, and patriarchy.
The radical project is hard to imagine, so she showed us a video. In it, Dr. Sahni is surrounded by a focus group of a dozen boys, and they’re reasoning through a thought experiment.
Suppose that a boy and a girl elope. The boy leaves her for another girl. Who is at fault? One boy suggests that the girl should be blamed for breaking the sanctity of marriage. Many agree with him. Sahni pauses, and approaches this Aristotelian problem with a Socratic solution.
“Do a boy and a girl elope together, or only the girl?”
“Together,” the boys mumble.
“So why is the girl to blame?”
Game, set, match. Using a finger on each hand to represent male and female, Sahni pulls them apart to represent heartbreak and separation, a feeling many of us know too well. “ So is this equal?” “Yes,” they respond. “Right. Either both are wrong or no one is.”
In another instance, Dr. Sahni’s reasoning convinced a young boy to reject the concept of marriage dowries, having realized that should he have a daughter, he will one day have to give what he asked for. One day, his grandfather asked him, “Now that you’re educated, how much of a dowry will you ask for?” He replied, “I’m not gonna ask for a dowry.” Another boy convinced his parents to not marry his sister off.
The Prerna curriculum is in 15 parts, and notable ones include Part 2: Knowing yourself, 11: Masculinity and violence, and 14: Gender-based violence in our lives. From the personal to the political, the boys gradually develop a sense of responsibility to gender justice in their lives. There are plenty more lessons that they learn through facilitated discussions and one-on-one conversations. Such as:
“Your social norms and frameworks are built early in life.”
And: “You must discuss power—and you must discuss equality—right from the beginning.”
In addition to Dr. Sahni’s work with the Prerna School, the Study Hall Educational Foundation has reached 500,000 children, 966 schools, and 2,000 teachers in India. She plans to continue her work and follow up with Prerna alumni to see how their feminism develops post-education.
It was 1 p.m., and Dr. Sahni’s presentation was now finished. But she took one last breath; intending to burn one more line into my hippocampus.
“Schools should not help students cope with society—they must help them change it.”
Image via Wikipedia
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8 Comments
@Anonymous We have to stop all this man shaming and white shaming.
@Anonymous Kavanaugh proves the hypocrisy of the anti-abortion crowd
@If there really were a "patriarchy" Do you think the men in control would allow pseudo intellectuals like Dr. Sahini to spew their nonsense?
Radical feminism is an ideology that oversimplifies societal interaction and organizational structure by reducing it to a series of hierarchies of gender, race, and sexuality that are predicated on power. That entire notion is patently false. First, what even is the patriarchy? Are sub hierarchies dominated by women (like healthcare) considered part of the patriarchy? The entire concept is ill defined and subjective. Second, there are an infinite number of potential hierarchies. Why is a hierarchy rooted in gender, race, and sexual orientation more valid than any of the other interpretations. Why not evaluate societal hierarchies in terms of weight, attractiveness, age, extroversion, intelligence, agreeableness, etc… ? Last, the assumption that all hierarchies are predicated on power is deeply flawed. What evidence is there to support that conclusion over the conclusion that hierarchies are predicated on competence and talent? The lack of critical thinking that goes into feminist ideology is amazing.
@Answer You raise a bunch of childish and bitter hipsters who cannnot get a job or support themselves until their 30s.
@Easy You teach boys to be victims too. Feminism is a toxic ideology with zero rigor and even less methodology where 100% of the “experts” are activists. To illustrate this, we can all learn the generative algorithm that underlies all of Dr. Uvashi Sahini’s “research” fairly quickly. Here’s the general idea:
1. Identify an area of human achievement.
2. Note a distribution of success.
3. Identify winners and losers.
4. Claim that the losers are losing because they are oppressed by the winners.
5. Claim allegiance with the losers.
6. Fell secure in your comprehensive explanation of the world and revel in your moral superiority.
7. Target your resentment toward your newly discovered enemies.
8. Repeat. Forever. Everywhere.
Moreover, this is to all of the “men” who call themselves “feminists.” You’re creepy and transparent. Masquerading as an ally because you can’t compete in the competence hierarchy will not get you laid.
@You're repeating yourself Didn’t you comment this the other day?
@Anonymous See step 8
@Anonymous The analysis is no less correct, and the ideology is no less pernicious. Sounds like you two might be a triggered. Try using personal responsibility as a motivator rather than feelings of resentment for those who are doing better than you. :)