Oh how we wept. Tears of pure joy. Maybe we just felt vindicated. Maybe we remembered our own struggles—to be allowed to work, to dodge the creepy boss, to learn to draw boundaries at work and home, to be judged by a different standard from men. Watching the women hold that cup felt personal. And so we wept. On the stands, at home watching TV, speaking to friends about that sweet, sweet win the morning after.
In the loveliest of gestures, captain Harmanpreet Kaur chose to honor the women on whose shoulders the team stood victorious. Calling on former cricketers Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Anjum Chopra to come, touch, celebrate and be acknowledged for clearing the path was to witness the power of sisterhood. Later, Jhulan would write in Sportstar, “This victory feels personal—not just for me, but for every player who came before this generation and laid the foundation.” Watching from the stands was a group of former players, women in their sixties, who knew what it was to travel by train to play, sleeping on mattresses spread out in school classrooms at night. Among them was Nilima Joglekar who had played in the first ever women’s inter-state nationals back in 1973. And, yes, she wept too.
More than the past, it is the future where this win’s impact will be most keenly felt. From Moga to Sangli and Siliguri to Kadapa, girls now know they can. They have a right to belong on playing fields, a right to take up space. It also sends a signal to parents that the sports field is no longer out-of-bounds for their daughters. It is the gateway to opportunity, equality, dignity, sorority, jobs, fame, money, influence. Equal to men? Well, not there yet. But certainly a step closer.
There can be no going back. Will the women lose? Undoubtedly. Will they have bad days on the field? For sure. Form will flag, morale will dip, self-doubt will creep in, disparities between them and the men who play will persist. But today, these women have shown what it is to win a world cup. And that is something nobody will take away from them again.
The man with the winning smile
After over a decade of watching serious men, arms across their chest, staring, even glowering into the camera, the election of the perpetually smiling Zohran Mamdani as the first Muslim mayor of New York is not just welcome visual relief, it flips the script, offering sunny hope, optimism and the promise of a more equitable social contract.
The 34-year-old stands as the antithesis to an older politics of crony capitalism shored up by billions in the war chest. He fought on a plank that called for higher taxes on the wealthy that would fund policies intended to reduce the cost of living. Freeze on rents? Tick. Free bus fares? Tick. Childcare workers paid teacher wages? City-run supermarkets? Yup, yup.
That his closest opponent, 67-year-old Andrew Cuomo, a man forced to resign as New York governor in disgrace after being accused of sexually harassing and groping 11 women, actually contested as an independent, was endorsed by Donald Trump and ended up with 41.6% of the vote (compared to Zohran’s 50.4%), tells you how fraught the battle for decency in public life can be.
The unflagging endurance of the female voter
On so many aspects, Bihar’s women citizens do poorly. Just 61% of girls aged six and above have ever attended school (rank: 28 out of 29 states). It’s the second-worst state in terms of child brides with 40.8% marrying before 18. Third-worst for infant mortality with 46.8%.
But there is one area in which Bihar’s women do exceedingly well: Flex muscle at election time. Since 2010, women have consistently turned out in higher numbers than men to cast their ballot and are now seen as a powerful-enough constituency to have rival political parties fall over each other in their efforts to win their vote.
On September 26, the Nitish Kumar government launched a scheme under which 7.5 million women members of self-help groups received 10,000 each to kickstart livelihood activities. On October 3, another 250,000 women received 10,000 into their bank accounts. Meanwhile, the opposition Mahagathbandhan headed by Tejashwi Yadav has promised a mai-bahin yojana, a one-time grant of 30,000, if voted to power.
Surviving 20 years of incumbency, Nitish has a legacy edge with women voters and has shown his gratitude in several ways from free bicycles to secondary school girls to reduce dropout rates to increasing reservation for women in panchayats and urban civic bodies from the legally mandated 33% to 50%. In 2015, he kept his poll-time promise to women to bring in prohibition throughout the state.
But, across party lines, there has been considerably less generosity in fielding women candidates. In 2010 when 32 women made it to the 243-member state assembly, representing just 14%, the number of women elected to the state assembly has only fallen. In 2015, it slipped to 28 women or 12% and in 2020 it was down to 26 women or 11%.
This narrative is not likely to change this time around with women candidates comprising less than 13% of all in the fray. Even newbie Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj reneged on its promise to field 40% women by giving tickets to just 25 women—roughly 10% of its candidates.
The giver
Ever since her divorce from Jeff Bezos in 2019, MacKenzie Scott has been putting her Amazon stock to good use. This week alone she made an $80 million donation to the historically black Howard University to expand its infrastructure and its diversity and equity causes, taking her donation to the university up to $132 million. Since 2020 she’s managed to give away $19 billion by selling her shares.
And this also happened
In a week already glorious for women’s sport, archer Sheetal Devi chose to add her magic by sealing her spot in India’s junior team for the Asia Cup 2025 to be held in Jeddah from December 10. Born with no arms, the 18-year-old has, against all odds, qualified to compete in an able-bodied tournament. “I have not seen myself as lesser than anybody,” she said later.
[Watch Sheetal Devi hit a perfect bullseye here. Video courtesy: Paralympic Games]
That’s it for this week. If you have a tip, feedback, criticism, please write to me at: namita.bhandare@gmail.com
