Doing Away with the Bar Code

A Kerala lawyer suspended for speaking about sexism on Facebook is ready to fight it out

KOCHI ~ Anima Murayath, a young lawyer who has been suspended from the Calicut Bar Association for her Facebook post revealing the sexism of male peers, is in no mood to take the arbitrary action lying down—she is going to fight it out. “I have already filed a criminal complaint against a few lawyers who tried to manhandle me in the general body meeting. I am also exploring legal options to move against the suspension,” says Murayath.

This was what she wrote in Malayalam on Facebook: ‘It has been five month since I started practising as a lawyer in Kozhikode Bar. I don’t know whether the workplace in all other places in this world is like this or not. I met several silly people of my age in the Bar as well as at my office. They address women as ‘Sugar Candy’ and follow up with comments like ‘You are so beautiful’. All of them follow the [yesteryear superhero] ‘Prem Nazir’ style in old Malayalam cinema. I think they don’t see new movies. They patronise women and view them as lovers, or sisters. I express my contempt of all those who follow such a style. Interestingly, there are some elders who make marriage proposals on seeing a woman. Are these people marriage brokers or uncles?’

It led to an angry response from male lawyers in the Bar, leading to Murayath’s suspension. A general body meeting, conducted with the intention of making Murayath apologise, saw her being verbally and physically abused. Chairs were thrown at Murayath and another lady lawyer who supported her.

While she has found a lot of support on social networking sites and elsewhere, the Bar Association remains unrepentant. “Will she make such comments about her family members? We consider the Bar Association our family. We gave her sufficient time to give an explanation but she was not at all polite,” says advocate BN Bineesh, former secretary of the Bar Association, who took the decision to expel Murayath.

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Shahina KK