By: Sayan Biswas

Stree is light, someone to be worshiped, someone who does everything without an ounce of expectations. And she does so much not for herself but for the people around her and still after doing so much she goes unnoticed and her efforts go unrecognized. There are so many women from being a simple homemaker to being a successful businesswoman and what not and still, they cannot shine properly as their light is shadowed by the society and the men in our society. Neerja Bhanot came into the limelight with the movie Neerja but there have been so many women whose work and fight against the society has gone unrecognized, who have done something major but are not remembered for their work. Starting from the early  1900’s till date women have fought for their rights, helped other women in surviving and fighting against the society.

Coretta Scott King

Little do we know about this brave lady who not only gave up her career of becoming a musician but also took the leadership and demanded that people of all races should be treated equally. She was an active member in Women’s movement and the laws affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement.  Coretta was the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. and fought till the end to make her husband’s birthday a national holiday. They first met in college and got married in the year 1953. She was a mother of four children and a widow but she is referred to as the “First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement”. She was also an advocate  for African-American equality. She died due to respiratory failure from ovarian cancer, before that she was unable to speak due to a stroke.

Sunitha Krishnan

She was just eight when she started to teach dance to mentally-challenged children. At the tender age of fifteen, she was gang-raped by eight men. But that didn’t stop her from doing the good work. She was arrested in the year 1996 along with several activists as they had protested against the showcasing of the Miss World pageant and was also in jail for two months. She is the co-founder of Prajwala, which provides shelters to women and children who have been rescued and it is also one of the largest rehabilitation centres for women who are affected by sex trafficking. A social worker and a brave lady who has been thrashed, threatened and stalked several times is a huge inspiration and provides shelter to many victims.

(The writer is a free lance Journalist with Stree)