Kerala teacher’s remarks trigger protest, women post nude photos

A remark by a professor of a teachers’ training college in Kerala’s Kozhikode that Muslim girls were not wearing the hijab properly and deliberately exposing their chests like “sliced watermelon” has triggered widespread protests across the state with some women posting nude photographs.

Many student organisations protested outside Farook Training College, where Jouhar Munavvir T teaches, seeking action against him.

They said they will send slices of watermelons to the teacher just like the ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign in response to the attack on women in a pub in Mangaluru in 2009 by activists of right-wing fringe group Sri Ram Sene.

“We will flood him with watermelons,” student activist P Ajitha said. A few women students supporting the teacher also took out a rally on the campus.

Students in other colleges also protested carrying sliced watermelons and sought strict action against Munavvir.

Some women even took to social media to post barebreasted photos, which were removed by Facebook.

Television channel NDTV reported that 25-year-old Arathy SA was among those, who posted a nude picture, and that and her husband too shared the photo.

“I am upset with hypersexualisation of breasts by people. Whether it be professors in college or social media users seeing a model breastfeed and pose for a magazine. So I and my husband posted pictures of me nude,” Arathy was quoted as saying.

Activist Diya Sana from Kochi also posted the picture of one of her activist friends, using watermelons to suggestively cover her breasts and face.

Munavvir made the controversial remark while speaking at a religious seminar in Kozhikode in north Kerala recently.

However, principal of Farook College CA Jawahar said the teacher made the statement during a counselling session three months ago outside the college and it was unfair to whip it up now.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: