What if I cover myself from head to toe? Limerick poem on a woman's right to dress

By Shruti Ambast

It's a good time to contemplate our double standards on the rights and privileges of different genders and, in particular, the way we think of women's bodies - what with the burkini debate, the assertion that the fear of women's breasts being visible is reason enough to ban them from a religious place, the censuring of bras from movies and the call to discourage skirts as they are too 'Western'.

Bras offend
So do breasts
And what do you know?
So does a flat chest

Skirts are a no-no
Because legs are bare
Jeans bhi mat pehno
Because legs are there

(What about a long skirt?
Dilemma, yaar!
Brb consulting my book of sanskaars)

What if I cover myself
From head to toe?
*cough* secularism *cough* security *cough*
Sorry. But no.

Enough! I renounce clothing
From now I will be nude
No way! What do you think you are -
A dude?

Shruti, 25 is a researcher based in Delhi and tweets as @shrutiambast