It's no secret that India, with its child marriages and honor killings, isn't particularly up-to-date regarding its treatment of women. After enduring this for most of her life (what with being married off to an ice cream vendor at 12 and having the first of her five children at 15), an Indian woman by the name of Sampat Pal Devi got sick of that shit and fought the fuck back.

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They began by visiting a few husbands who refused to stop beating their wives, intimidating them into changing their minds by brandishing bamboo sticks. The movement now has more than 200,000 members; Pal travels from village to village on a bicycle to keep the momentum going.

It is also no secret that India is a fucking huge country. That she has the cajones to stand up to a millennia-old tradition of mistreating women and manages to spread it around on her bike just ups her levels of badassery.

Quote:

In 2008, the group ambushed the local electricity office, which was withholding electricity until members received bribes or sexual favors in return for flicking the switch back on. The stick-wielding gulabi stormed the company grounds and proceeded to rough up the staff inside the building. An hour later, the power was back on in the village.

While it's extremely saddening to see that the women involved in the gulabi have so little faith in their government's political processes that ganging up and beating the crap out of those responsible offers better results, it's good to see that they're fighting back at all.

While I usually don't condone violence, sometimes you have no choice but to smack an idea into people's heads until they get it.

It makes me worry about violent reprisals, though. Does this really change men's behavior, or do they just go back to old habits once the bamboo-wielding militia leaves town?

FUCK. YES.

I was just telling someone about how women in India are treated the other day, but now I want to tell them about this awesomeness.

Hot damn, this is awesome.

This woman is my new heroine. I really, really hope the message sinks in.

Women like her restore my faith in humanity.

This makes me so happy I got a bit teary-eyed. ;_;

Love this...but it's time to up the ante a bit to give these women a REAL chance of success.

*grins evilly* Who wants to tell them about Lorena Bobbit?

God damn.

It's both inspiring and a little disheartening. Either way, badass indeed.

That's really wonderful. She's an amazing badass mofo and inspiring and incredible.

Yeah, I'm tearing up and sniffling now.

I applaud this woman, and will gladly provide more sticks, should they run low on ammo.