Why Loiter? Quotes

“Risk taking is often considered acceptable, even desirable masculine behaviour. For women, on the other hand, it is not only seen as unfeminine, but as potentially the behaviour of a ‘loose’ woman.”
― Shilpa Phadke, Why Loiter?: Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets

“When a woman is attacked in a public space—the question of what she was doing there in the first place is inevitably asked, along with variations on the theme—what she was wearing and whom she was with. Concerns about the safety of women then are essentially about sexual safety and not safety from theft or accident or even murder.”
― Shilpa Phadke, Why Loiter?: Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets

“Citizens’ groups would like parks to comply with notions of middle-class aesthetics and morality. Timings for opening and closing, rules about edibles, lists of dos and don’ts in the park, and the presence of visible security signify not just concerns of beauty and cleanliness, but also of morality.”
― Shilpa Phadke, Why Loiter?: Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets

“Turning the safety argument on its head, we now propose that what women need in order to maximize their access to public space as citizens is not greater surveillance or protectionism (however well meaning), but the right to take risks.”
― Shilpa Phadke, Why Loiter?: Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets