Beginning the preface with an African proverb … “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter”, Neha Bansal the author of ‘Herstory’, which is a compilation of poems on voices of women, makes an attempt to clear that until the women dare to speak out, they will remain an object to be judged by the male dominated society of ours.  

The book comprises of 39 narratives starting from the fall of Draupadi and ending with the plight of widows in our society, who are forced to live a torturous life, for no fault of theirs. Why is it that in our society, no one ever cares for the bride’s aspirations before deciding her fate? Does menstruation really make a woman so unholy that she is forbidden to enter the Lord’s temple?  

There are many such questions Neha poses in Herstory, ranging from stories of women in Indian epics to the modern day India, where gender bias still persist and women are judged by their skin tone. It is our male dominated society, which makes our women accept at a very tender age that they are nothing but a field to be sown with the seeds of their husbands. It is our society that worships Goddess Durga and at the same time outrages the modesty of innocent girls, later to judge their virginity at the first night.

From being forced into prostitution to being looked down upon for being barren, the untold misery of women in our society is carried from womb to tomb. The 39 bold narrations in Herstory of Neha Bansal make us ponder upon the concept of ‘gender equality’ and ‘women empowerment’, while we brush aside the miseries, untold sufferings, humiliations and agonies of the women in our society.