INDIA

Rajasthan

“It’s better to be a boy. A good boy goes to school and can do any type of job, travel, go where he likes without asking anyone. Good or bad, a young girl has to stay at home.” Pushpa

Abstracts

"Pushpa is a young untouchable from Rajasthan, who I met in a literacy association supported by UNESCO. She dreams of a non-arranged marriage, a profession other than being a housewife. (…) Earlier, I’d been introduced to a peasant known for carrying out a solo crusade against arranged marriages. She faced permanent threats from those around her. This poor woman agreed to meet us. Straight away, I knew that she’d provide a magnificent, powerful portrait.

But I had to renounce this project when she suddenly turned down my request. The night before our arrival, enemy villagers had committed a grave act of hostility that stooped to the worst form of cruelty: they had put a dead cow in her field!"

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