60 Iconic Women In A 12-Metre-Long Shirt

A women's group has designed a 12-metre-long shirt -- with caricatures of 60 accomplished women. The group, which is from Thrissur, Kerala, aims to celebrate womanhood and freedom.

The huge 12-metre-long shirt is in progress (Pic Credit: TOI)

Eminent faces, including Arundhati Roy, Medha Patkar, Teesta Setalvad and K Ajitha are portrayed in one outline. With this, the designers are hoping to set a world record by creating the largest caricature shirt in the world. Now where would you find this kind of a talent pool in one frame?

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Celebration of International Women's Day wouldn’t get any better than this as each sketch drawn depicts womanhood and freedom, according to the initiator of the project, Mukkom-based cartoonist M Dileef and designer Aysha V K from Guruvayoor. The main focus is to win over patriarchy and sexual exploitation that dominates society.

"The shirt is 12 metres long and 8 metres broad, and made of thick cotton fabric mixed with canvas. Cartoonist Dileef is drawing the caricatures of 60 notable women from our country. On the other side of the shirt, we will be depicting women's issues which should be addressed," says Aysha, TOI reports.

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While this is not a one-day project, the group of designers and Dileef started working on the shirt from March 4, using acrylic paint.

"It is unfortunate than even after women entered the mainstream, they are subjected to sexual exploitation, which can hamper their confidence. The insecurity they suffer from is the result of years of oppression. We have tried to depict the oppression in chronological order — from Sati system to the Nirbhaya incident," says Dileef while mentioning that their other aim is to find solutions to the problems.

"After ample research and discussions with many women around, we feel that the problem can be resolved if women are given equal opportunities in every field. They should be given 50 per cent seats in parliament and assured safe mobility. Public toilets should be built for women. We hope that by doing something out of the box, we will be able to address the issues in a better way," he says.

Aysha further explained why being empowered has nothing to do with what women wear and thus they chose a shirt, not a sari. She added, “So when the motto behind the attempt is women's empowerment, why is it a shirt and not a sari? There is a common notion that women's safety is the sole responsibility of women. We have tried to become more inclusive by bringing in men too and making them understand that it should be a cumulative effort."

Today is March 8 and the team has finally finished drawing the caricatures. To mark it as a symbol of women empowerment, 101 women experts from the different walks of life will sign on the shirt. Cheers for this brilliant execution in attempting to set the world record.

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Feature Image Credit: ebayimg.com

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