India

"Bhawna is a model, from a conservative Hindu family in the Brahmin caste, who has always been supported by her family in her bid for independence. Meenakshi is a socially-aware journalist. She defines herself as a free spirit forged by the contradictory universes of her Hindi home, a place of intense sensory profusion, and the puritan Catholic institutions where she was schooled.

(…) Bhawna doesn’t exactly correspond to the stereotype of the Indian woman who bends to traditions, with a red dot in the middle of her forehead. Still, I like the idea that the most emancipated women like Meenakshi, and Indian society in general, don’t sacrifice their colour to urban westernisation. Very early in the morning, you can see groups of women winding their way down the footpaths of the immense boulevard in the south of Mumbai: they go jogging in trainers before going to work, or they stride purposely, draped in multicoloured saris."

Extract from Zoé Zoé, Femmes du mondes, 2007, Éditions Gallimard