This Valentine's Day Make Sure to Send Some Pink Panties to India

This Valentine's Day, don't forget your pink panties. That is if you intend to send them to Shri Ram Sene leader Pramod Muthalik who will be receiving a load of rosy undergarments from women and men around the world who are protesting Shri Ram Sene's (Army of Lord Ram) violent assault on women in a Mangalore pub in late January.

The Shri Ram Sene political party believes that women are not meant to socialize and certainly not meant to be anywhere near a bar, which is what led to the attacks. Two of the women assaulted were hospitalized, and the attackers have received little, if any, punishment. Additionally, there are some who said the women "deserved" to be attacked. You can watch the reportage on the attacks here:

The protest to fight back against the violence is known as the Pink Chaddi campaign and kicked off on February 5 with over 10,000 members. According to the Times of India, the campaign has become so popular that support has come in from the US, UK, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Belgium, China, Portugal, Germany and even Pakistan. Some people want to send chaddis from across the border. In addition to panties, known as chaddis in India, supporters are sending khadi underwear, V-day cards, chaddis with love messages, dunce caps, a DVD of Mira Nair's film Fire, pictures of semi-nude sadhus from the Kumbh Mela, the Cosmopolitan cocktail, Cupid's bow and arrow, a copy of the Kamasutra (both the book and the movie) and condoms!

Reported in the Times, some feminists are comparing the `panty-social activity' to the Bra Burning Movement and Take Back The Night, both of which asserted a woman's right to freedom in public spaces.

The Pink Chaddi campaigners - who call themselves a Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women -  are mailing pink panties to the leader of the party, organizing pub crawls around the world, and speaking up for women's rights. They will deliver the underwear on Valentine's Day.

This story was sent to me by a Change.org reader, Catherine Michel,  who said:

I, for one, will mail some pink underwear to India, and I will certainly take a picture of my girlfriends and I toasting women on Valentine's Day. And I imagine women all over the world would be willing to do the same--if only they knew about it.

If you'd like to participate in this campaign, you can send some pink chaddis to India and make a statement against the violence that these women experienced. Here is the address you should send them to: