Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."
Irom Chanu Sharmila (1970 - ), also known as Sharmila Chanu, is an Indian woman activist of Meitei Manipuri heritage, known for her campaign against the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, colloquially known as the AFSPA. Manipur was, like many other princely states, annexed by the Indian Union in 1949 under disputed circumstances; there have been sporadic separatist movements since. Chanu has been on a hunger strike demanding the repeal of the AFSPA, on November 2, 2000, after soldiers of the Indian Paramilitary Assam Rifles allegedly killed ten young Meitei men in Malom. Three days later, police arrested Sharmila on charges of "attempted suicide",suicide or attempted suicide being unlawful under Indian laws,and she was later transferred to judicial custody.
To keep her alive, she was force-fed a cocktail of vitamins, minerals, laxatives, protein supplements and lentil soup through the nose with a rubber pipe. As part of a major set of concessions, including the transfer of the Kangla Fort to the State Government, a long-standing demand, Irom Chanu was released on October 2, 2006, on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. She immediately made her way secretly to New Delhi, visited Gandhi's mausoleum (samadhi) at Raj Ghat as her first act after being released, and immediately recommenced her fast at the Jantar Mantar monument in Delhi.She was immediately arrested once again and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences' hospital (AIIMS), but her brother, Irom Singhajit Singh, has challenged the detention in the New Delhi High Court. Also, as part of these concessions, AFSPA has been repealed for certain parts of urban Manipur.
Activists against AFSPA have rejected these concessions as inadequate and demand a complete repeal. On November 28, 2006, Irom Chanu removed the plastic pipe inserted into her nose to force-feed her, acting against the advice of AIIMS' doctors, in order to resume her forcibly interrupted fast-unto-death demanding the complete repeal of AFSPA. On December 2, 2006, Irom Chanu Sharmila rejected Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance to 'dilute' the AFSPA and announced her intention to continue until complete repeal.
In late November 2006, Iranian activist and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi visited Irom Chanu at AIIMS and announced her public support for her campaign against AFSPA.
Booker Prize winning authorr Arundhati Roy was born on November 24, 1961. Her father a Bengali tea planter and mother a Kerala Christian woman.
She spent her childhood in Aymanam, Kerala, where she went to an informal school run by her mother. Roy left home at 16 for Delhi.She lived in a slum and made a living by selling empty bottles.
She later joined Delhi School of Architecture. It is where she met her first husband Gererd Da Cunha, a fellow student.
Roy and Cunha divorced after four years of marriage. After she met her second husband, filmmaker Pradeep Kishen, she got involved in film making. Her film credits include Massey Sahib; In Which Annie gives it Those Ones. She wrote screen play for television serial Electric Moon and Banyan Tree.
Her novel Good of Small Things, which won Booker Prize in 1997, is a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood in Kerala. Jim Crace for Quarantine, Mick Jackson for The Underground Man, Bernard MacLaverty for Grace Notes, Tim Parks for Europa, Madeline St John for The Essence of the Thing made it to the Booker nominations that year. She received a half a million pounds as advance for the book, whose rights were sold in 21 countries.
Roy who saw the stardom Booker Prize brought as short lived and tried to stay away from limelight. After the initial hype subsided, she concentrated on writing about ’s nuclear tests, social injustice, anti-globalization, terrorism, and the Narmada dam project in Indian state of Gujarat.Recipient of 2002 Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom, she was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her role in social campaigns and promoting non-violence.
Gia Carangi was born on January 29, 1960 in Philadelphia. In 1977, Gia traveled to New York to begin her modeling career. She became a model by mere accident. As Gia was letting lose at a local Disco, a photographer saw her, and asked to take her Picture gia began dancing wildiay around the bar, arms out stretched, hair in her eyes, and squealing like a school girl. When the pictures reached the desk of Vogue magazine, there was no stopping her.
Her first major modeling job was with Gianni Versace when she was 18. She was quite a change from the typical blonde hair-blue eye model everyone saw as the most beautiful type of women. Gia changed all that. Within the next year Gia became one of the biggest models of the late 1970s.Gia was immediately swept into the fashion world. She never went through the tough rejections that other models faced; she was considered a “rare gem” in the modeling business. Partly due to supermodel Janice Dickinson’s success, a demand for more ethnic looking models was in. She was visibly striking, and was a hit with all the photographers.
By the end of 1978, Gia had already rocked the fashion world at age 18. However, she was extremely lonely and still looking for stability in her life.
Gia began to develop a serious cocaine addiction. Common for the time, but lethal to most everyone who took it up. Kelly LeBrock, a top model at the time, remembers the time she spent with Gia.
In October of 1978, Gia did her first major shoot with top fashion photographer Chris von Wangenheim. Wangenheim had Gia pose nude behind a chain link fence, with makeup assistant Sandy Linter.
By January of 1980, Gia’s surrogate mother and agent, Wilhelmina Cooper was diagnosed with lung cancer. Gia quickly turned to drugs to escape the harsh reality.
A month after she returned, Wilhelmina passed away at the age of 40. This was something Gia never quite got over. Combined with her confusing sexuality, her Mother’s persistence at her becoming successful, and her now newly formed heroin addiction, Gia’s life began to slowly crumble.
To the world, 1980 was a great year for Gia in fashion. She was seen on covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, but behind the scenes she was a very different person. She would have violent temper tantrums, walk-out of photo shoots and even fell asleep in front of the camera. In a 1980 November issue of Vogue, has since been the butt of many rumors about her drug use. It was said for many years that the nor famous cover, with Gia’s arms tucked stealthily behind her back, were posed that way in order to hide track marks when she was supposed to have been sober. This is not true; it was disputed most recently by Scavullo himself, who shot the cover. For three weeks, Gia was signed with Eileen Ford, but was dropped because she had little tolerance for Gia’s behavior.
Her attempt to quit drugs was shattered when news that good friend and fashion photographer Chris Von Wangenheim had died in a car accident. It is said that Gia locked herself in a bathroom for hours, shooting heroin. In the fall of 1981, Gia looked far from the top model she once was. Drugs had ravaged her body, and in time, her face as well. However, she was still determined to make a comeback into the fashion industry. She contacted Monique Pillard (who was largely responsible for Janice Dickinson’s career), and who was hesitant to sign her.
In West Germany, a budding fashion industry was being created. Although seen as tacky by the designers from New York, Paris and Milan, the Germans were willing to pay 10,000 a week to shoot Gia abroad. However, no one in the states would book her. In the spring of 1983, Gia was caught with drugs in a shoot in Africa. Her career was over.
After six months, Gia was released from the program. She moved back to Philadelphia, and it seemed as if she was getting her life back on track. She started taking classes in photography and cinematography. But, three months later, Gia had vanished once again, and had returned to Atlantic City, and started shooting heroin again. She sexually prostituted herself and was raped on several occasions. She soon became sick with pneumonia, and her mother came and checked her into a hospital.
She was diagnosed with AIDS, then a newly-known disease. As her condition worsened, she was transferred to Philadelphia’s Hahnemann Hospital. Her mother stayed with her day and night, allowing barely anyone see her. By this time, AIDS had taken a toll on her body; her once beautiful face was vanishing.
On November 18, 1986 at 10 in the morning, 26-year-old Gia Carangi died. Her funeral was held on November 23 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. Gia’s mother and father did their best to contact people in Philadelphia and in New York.
Although her death was tragic, it was surely not in vain. Gia was the first well known woman to die from AIDS. She brought AIDS into the forefront of the American conscience. She was a fighter. Although she eventually succumbed, no one could ever say she didn’t try. She searched her entire life for honesty and love, two things she cherished and rarely attained.
“There’s only been maybe 3 girls in my whole career that have walked into my studio and I went ‘wow’. Gia was the last who came in here and I said ‘wow.’”
Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. She only had one sister, Murial, in her family. Her mom's and dad's names were Amy and Edwin Earhart. When Amelia was a little girl, she would only participate in boy activities. In 1905, her dad received a promotion that took him and Amy away to Des Moines. For three years, Amelia and her sister lived with their grandparents. In 1908, Amelia and Muriel joined their parents. When Amelia was 11, her dad took her to the state fair. There she saw her first airplane.
When Amelia had spare time, she liked to ride horses with her sister and friends. Amelia worked at a hospital until World War I ended. After that, she worked hard to earn enough money for flying lessons. For her twenty-fifth birthday on July 24, 1922, she had enough money, and a final payment was made.
When Amelia lived in California, she spent many hours flying. On May of 1923, she received a pilot's licence. On April 1928, a man called and challenged Amelia to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She said that she would. The airplane, Friendship, took off with Amelia in it. The flight took twenty hours and forty minutes.
Amelia's courage to fly across the Atlantic spread rumors all over the world. Now, flying was right in the middle of of Amelia's life. In 1928, she made her first solo trip across the United States. In 1930, Amelia married a young man named George Putman. They spent many years together.
When Amelia was 38 years old, she challenged herself to fly around the world! She asked the Purdue Research Foundation to build an all-metal, twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E. They built the plane especially for her. Amelia was thrilled with her shiny new plane when she got it.
Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan made their last discussion of the route before they left. On June 1, 1937, the silver plane, Electra, took off in Miami at sunrise. Their first stop was in Carpieto, Venezuela. As they flew around the equator, everything seemed to be fine, but the worst was yet to come.
On July 2, the Electra left New Guinea to go to an island so small, it was difficult to locate. There were coast guard ships to locate the island for the plane to land safely. The ship got signals from Amelia requesting a bearing. They answered but didn't hear back from her until five hours later. Her last call came less than an hour later. She said, "We are running north and south." The crew tried to reach her with every frequency call they had, but they still could not reach her. Then there was a dead silence, and they received no more calls from Amelia. They never found her plane, Amelia, or Fred. Amelia is remembered as someone who was brave and courageous. She is a role model to many because she blazed a trail for women in aviation and other fields that had not been open to women.
Edith Minturn Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 - November 15 1971) was a delicately beautiful American socialite best known as a star of underground films made by Andy Warhol in the 1960s.
In 1964, Sedgwick moved to New York to pursue a career in modelling. She appeared in Time, LIFE and Vogue magazine|Vogue between 1963 and 1965. The editor in chief of Vogue, Diana Vreeland,called her an exemplar of the era's youth culture.In 1965 Sedgwick met Andy Warhol and quickly became his favourite "Warhol superstar", featuring in many of his underground films including Poor Little Rich Girl, Vinyl, Beauty No.2|Beauty No.2,and Chelsea Girls. It was during this period that Sedgwick began using drugs, particularly amphetamines.
She became Warhol's Girl of the Year during 1965 when she accompanied him everywhere in the New York social scene. During this period the pair would often dress alike, and Sedgwick frequently called herself Mrs. Warhol. The friendship did not last beyond 1966 when Warhol and Sedgwick made an acrimonious public split.
Following her departure from Warhol's circles,Sedgwick began living at Hotel Chelsea where she became involved with Bob Dylan. Dylan's friends convinced Sedgwick to sign up with Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager. While involved with Dylan, Sedgwick was introduced to LSD.She is rumoured to be one of the main inspirations behind Dylan's seminal 1966 opus Blonde on Blonde and songs as famous and diverse as the tender ballad "Just Like a Woman" and the raucous stomper"Leopardskin Pillbox Hat." She also inspired "Lay Lady Lay."
In 1966, Sedgwick began a tumultuous relationship with Dylan's longtime sidekick Bob Neuwirth.During this relationship she became dependent on heroin and barbituates. The relationship ended in 1967. In April 1967 Sedgwick began shooting on Ciao! Manhattan an underground movie in which she was to star. After some footage was shot in New York, work on the film was abandoned due to budget and legal problems.
Sedgwick's rapidly degenerating health saw her return to her family in California and spend time in several different psychiatric institutions.In August 1969, she was admitted to the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California.Santa Barbara, where she met Michael Post, whom she married on July 24, 1971. Electro convulsive therapy treatments were administered extensively and several efforts at drug rehabilitation were made.
Shooting resumed on Ciao! Manhattan in 1970 and was completed in 1971.
Sedgwick died in November 1971 from barbiturate poisoning; her husband of four months woke to find her dead in bed beside him. Her death was ruled a suicide/ drug overdose. A young woman with an undoubted talent for inspiring the talents in others, Sedgwick has been immortalized in a number of rock songs and continues to be an icon far beyond what her actual achievements might suggest.
Kathleen Hanna (Born 12 November 1969) is a American musician. She is the lead singer of Le Tigre and former lead singer of Bikini Kill (early 1990s). In between these two major bands, she had a solo project called Julie Ruin.
Kathleen first left her mark on the music world by inspiring the name of Nirvana's hit song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" when she spraypainted "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on one of Kurt Cobain's walls. Teen Spirit is a kind of deodorant that Tobi Vail, Kurt's girlfriend at that time, wore. Tobi and Kathleen both attended The Evergreen State College together and while Tobi was in her first band The Go Team with Calvin Johnson, she had begun to date Cobain, who had been a guest musician on one of The Go Team's singles.
After the breakup of The Go Team both women began collaborating on several influential fanzines which included Revolution Girl Style Now and Bikini Kill, which became the name of the punk band Vail and Hanna commenced to form, with fellow Evergreen College student Kathi Wilcox and Vail's former sometimes bandmate in The Go Team, Billy Karren. Bikini Kill and these zines defined the movement that came to be called Riot Grrrl. With fellow Olympia, Washington band Bratmobile, the group popularized Riot Grrrl throughout North America and Europe. Their first release for the Kill Rock Stars label was a self-titled EP produced by Ian MacKaye of Fugazi. Bikini Kill then toured the U.K., recording a split LP with U.K. band Huggy Bear, and were filmed and interviewed by Lucy Thane for her documentary, It Changed My Life: Bikini Kill In The U.K.. Upon returning to the U.S., the band began working with Joan Jett, who produced their single, "New Radio/Rebel Girl". After the release of this record, Kathleen began co-writing some songs with Joan for her new album.
At the same time Kathleen produced several solo pieces for the Kill Rock Stars "Wordcore" series of recordings. One was released as a 7" single, called "Rockstar" and others on various compilations, including "I Wish I Was Him" (a Ben Lee cover about Evan Dando) on Rock Stars Kill.
When the intense media scrutiny of the Riot Grrrl bands led to the breakup of both Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, Hanna began working on several other projects. The first, The Fakes, was a project involving several other musicians, including Rachel Karns of The Need. The resulting CD, The Fakes was released on Chainsaw Records. Her next project, Julie Ruin was an entirely solo CD, in a more electronic vein, released on the Kill Rock Stars label.
In Portland, Oregon Hanna formed a band with a zine editor she admired, Johanna Fateman, called The Troublemakers, named after a film of the same name by G.B. Jones. This band ended when Fateman relocated to New York City; however Hanna soon joined her on the east coast and with ther addition of filmmaker Sadie Benning , they started another band, this time called Le Tigre. This band continued to pursue a more electronic style of music Hanna had begun to explore with Julie Ruin. The band began recording records for the Mr. Lady Records label, the first being the self-titled Le Tigre, which included the single "Hot Topic". At this time Sadie Benning left the band and J.D. Samson joined and the follow-up CD Feminist Sweepstakes was released. The group switched labels for the release in 2005 of This Island to Universal Records in hopes that this could aid in the propagation of their message of empowerment for women and others marginalized by mainstream culture.
She is romantically linked to Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, who have been together since the 90s, and was also once involved with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana. In 2004, she provided the vocal track for the opening of the song "Letterbomb" on Green Day's American Idiot and interviewed Amy Poehler for Interview Magazine.
Let me end this by one of her famous quote:"You learn that the only way to get rock-star power as a girl is to be a groupie and bare your breasts and get chosen for the night. We learn that the only way to get anywhere is through men. And it's a lie."
RAPE is the fastest growing crime in India and New Delhi has seen more than 10 rapes last month alone.
As an embarrassed government gets ready to enact tougher rape laws, the victims continue to face an insensitive police and criminal justice system.
Nearly three years ago as India was celebrating the festival of lights, the world dimmed for an 18-year-old as she was returning from work late in the night.
Iris was first stalked by four drunken men and then raped by one of them in the heart of New Delhi.
"The whole night he raped me. My hands were tied and my voice deserted me," Iris recounts the incident.
And the trauma didn't stop there.
The police first refused to lodge an FIR and when they finally did, no medical tests were ordered.
Instead in a misguided attempt at justice they got her married to her rapist.
Two years on, with a child she conceived the night she was raped, Iris is out on the road, deserted by her husband and looking for justice again.
"Some times I feel I should commit suicide," she says.
Iris is part of statistics that have got sociologists worried.
The reported cases of rape have grown by 700 per cent since 1953. Last year 20,000 rapes were reported in the country. And India's rape capital New Delhi has seen 10 cases last month alone.
One case was that of a minor girl being raped by a policeman.
Sociologists say reasons for this sudden increase is a complex mix of migration, shrinking spaces in cities and the high visibility of women outside their homes.
However, law enforcement agencies argue that actual rape cases haven't increased substantially, what has is their reportage.
And in any case since 80 per cent of the accused are known to the victims, it's a crime virtually not preventable.
Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police Kawaljeet Deol would know.
She helped set up the crime against women cell in the capital 24 years ago.
She says though the police is often blamed for being insensitive to rape victims, their real culprit is the criminal justice system.
The trial of rape cases is very long and intimidation for the victim. Many victims turn hostile because of this," Deol says.
No wonder then that the conviction rate for rape is as low as 27 per cent. In a country where a rape is reported every 30 minutes, it's a statistic that should put all of us to shame.
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