Am I a feminist? Ever since I've formally joined the Blank Noise Project, this has become a very preodminant question in my life. As I have moved from providing backroom support for my friend Jasmeen into a more concrete role of planning interventions, chalking out strategies and having to deal, every single day, with a million questions about women's rights, it plays constantly at the back of my mind.

I have never read Gloria Steinem or Germaine Greer or, even, Simone de Beauvoir's classic The Second Sex. In fact, I have only just begun to read Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth and it's riveting. I don't subscribe to stereotypes. None of us at Blank Noise do. At Blank Noise, we don't stage dharnas or sit-ins. Neither have we addressed conferences and made strident stirring speeches anywhere. Our interventions  aim to be inclusive, educative, impactful and very empowering. While I stood in the VT Subway last Friday evening, I was struck by how just standing around and staring could make me feel more in control of a public space, which, under normal circumstances, would still be a threatening one. Does that make me feminist?

I am so angered by this statement made by a senior Army officer. Does my indignation at his insensitivity and my bafflement at his perpetuation of stupid stereotypes make me feminist?

I have not undertaken any sort of study of feminism. I have not read treatises and books and compared them to chalk up what sets one apart from the other and which one theory might hold more water. I am not an academic and cannot ever aim to be one. But, from my tiny role in the international struggles of women, from their right to equal pay to their right to independence to, in so many places, their right to live, I have realised that feminism is too large to ever be defined and too layered to encourage stereotypes and too urgent to be pushed aside by any prejudice or any misconception.

Today, more than ever, women play much larger roles in every area of life. Today, more than ever, we hold positions of power and authority. But we're also still fighting the glass ceiling everyday. We're still threatened in public spaces. We're still stereotyped and categorised and subjected to judgement and expectations in ways men never are. If a deep engagement with these issues, if an awareness of their gravity and a compelling wish to participate in debate makes me feminist, then I am one. There, I've said it.