Girl interrupted

Female smokers in the city feel that they are discriminated against by onlookers, while male smokers get away scot free


Smoking kills, and no one knows it better than a smoker. The warning is loud and clear on every packet of ciggies. Yet a whole host of people, fromwell-meaning acquaintances to complete strangers, seem to consider it their moral duty to tell a
woman to quit smoking. Health risks, patriotic rants and even the whole culture bhasha is doled out to the minority of female smokers while men continue to light up
unhindered. So why is this attitude reserved only for women? Girls who smoke are discriminated against, states Rakhi, a college student. “In my class, there are guys as well as girls who smoke. But it’s us girls who are in the lecturer’s bad books. He’s always saying things like, ‘We know what you all do outside.’ It’s so unfair because we are not breaking any rules here and our smoking habits have nothing to
with him or the college.” Others are subjected to worse. A young software professional recalls, “Just the other day, my friend and I were smoking an open space when this guy walked up to us. At first we thought he was asking for directions
because he started with, ‘Excuse me. I have just come back from the US’ but then he
went on to say, ‘I saw ladies doing all these things in America but why are you Indian girls smoking? You are the ones bringing India down!’We walked away
but he kept shouting curses at backs. And this, while there were guys smoking all around us.” Sometimes women take it upon themselves to lecture female
smokers. As student Goutami us, “Recently this lady approached me and started
telling me that it’s not ‘appropriate’ for a girl to smoke. Then she went on
and on about how I won’t be able to have babies!” Ironically, even some cigarette
shop owners look askance at female customers. “I always prefer to buy cigarettes on MG Road or Brigade Road because in Ulsoor where I live, people
keep staring and passing comments,” adds Goutami. But the worst critics are
male smokers who have an objection to women doing the
same, says Chetan Dash, a young professional. “These are the chauvinists.
They smoke, so they know why people smoke. Yet they refuse to accept women smokers.
I have female friends who smoke so I know what they go through. A lot of them were closet smokers for a long time,” he tells us. “Nobody bats an eyelid at a guy
smoking. It’s a bad habit but it has come to be accepted. But my female friends have faced many humiliating situations where their character has been questioned by
the likes of auto drivers, just because they smoke.” Seriously, smoke knows no gender,so why all this discrimination.Let’s leave it up to ourwomen to choose.