‘On 16th December 2012 at around 8.30 pm a 23 year old female medical student was on her way home from a movie with a male friend, the couple boarded a private bus, which claimed to be going their way. Her friend was badly beaten and she was dragged to the back where she was gang raped by 6 men as the bus drove round and round the highways’
These are the opening few lines from the eye-opening film India’s Daughter. The film explores the brutal rape and murder of Jyoti Singh. In telling Jyoti’s story the documentary exposes the disgusting treatment of women in India.
Every 20 minutes a woman is raped in India, many of these rapes go unreported likely due to cultural pressures that overly sexualise women and re-inforce gender inequalities. As an example of how deeply entrenched these gender inequalities are, Mukesh, one of Jyoti’s rapist is interviewed in the movie, he is quoted as saying ‘a girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy’
This movie will haunt you in a way necessary to open your eyes to the blatant defying of human rights perpetuated by cultural and systemic gender inequality in India.
It was the making and creation of this incredible documentary that opened the eyes of Leslee Udwin, a BAFTA award winning film-maker, to create the organisation Think Equal. Think Equal is an organisation that calls for systemic changes in education to end the discriminatory mind set and cycle of violence across the world. The mission of Think Equal is to ask governments to adopt their curriculum and its tangible tools to mediate all aspects of experiential social and emotional learning. After watching the documentary it becomes clear how necessary and important the work of Leslee and Think Equal really is.
Leslee and Sally Nicholes have worked closely together having crossed paths at the 2017 World Congress on Family Law and Children’s rights held in Dublin. Leslee was the opening speaker of the World Congress and Sally sits on the board of the World Congress. With a mutual interest in progressing children’s rights and education, Nicholes Family Lawyers is proud to support Leslee and the Think Equal Organisation
On the 20th of November Leslee and Think Equal are holding a Fundraising night with a screening of India’s Daughter and a special presentation from Leslee after the screening. As supporters and greater believers of the Think Equal movement we invite you and encourage you to attend this event. The proceeds from the ticket sales of the event will go 100% towards funding the pilot programme of Think Equal which will be in Melbourne pre-schools in February 2019. We hope to see you there!
Tickets and more information on the event are available here: http://thinkequal.com.au/