Challenge Accepted

What is this challenge?

It is a viral trend on Instagram where women tag other women to upload a picture of them in the black and white filter and put challenge accepted as their caption and use hashtags like #womensupportwomen.

Celebrities like Jeniffer Aniston, Khloe Kardashian, Jeniffer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Katrina Kaif, Madhuri Dixit and so many more have accepted this challenge. 

Who is doing this and why?

1. Women who are doing this because their friends tagged them and they have no idea about the origin. 

2. Women who are doing this to support the 27-year-old Turkish woman Pinar Gultekin who was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend Cemal Metin Avci. He put her body in a barrel and burned it after which he poured concrete over it. This brutal act caused anger to erupt among Turkish women and they started a chain, to show their support to Pinar and her family. 

The rate of Femicide in Turkey has been rising exceptionally and while we all are unaware of this fact, the Turkish newspapers print their pictures in black and white and so this chain was started as a way to stand in solidarity with the women who have lost their lives.

3. Women who are posting it to show their support to the American Congresswoman US Rep.Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who was called disgusting and a "fucking bitch" by Rep. Yoho.

She addressed this issue in a very eloquent manner in front of the House of Representatives following which rep Yohu resigned from the board of Christian organisation . The organisation stated;

"We believe that Rep. Ted Yoho's recent actions and words as reported in the media are not reflective of the ethical standards expected of members of our Board of Directors," 

4. Women who are supporting both the ladies one of whom has been a victim of harassment and the other one has been a victim of violence and murder. 

Is this challenge helping in any way ?

Till now there have been 4.1M posts on Instagram and it is only growing.

These pictures define the amount of females that stand up for any form of sexism or violence faced by females all around the world.

Social media is a powerful tool to establish subconscious pressure on the concerned authorities to look deep into the matter.

A message to all those people who think this will not help the matter:

1. If you don't post a black and white picture that doesn't mean you're not a feminist or that you do not believe what happened in the aforementioned cases wasn't wrong.

2. What you really need to understand is that, the ones who are posting these pictures are not doing so only because they find it amusing. Even if there are females who do not know what the challenge is about, they are still contributing to a good cause . EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN WAYS TO EXPRESS. 

3. Respect everyone's choice of showing what they stand for and how they wish to showcase their choice. The wrong and right in their choice will be known only and only by The Law. 

We post about so many matters on OUR feeds,

So many Indians posted when the pregnant elephant was killed in Kerala , I did too and 

About the Tuticorin Custodial death of a father and son or

About the floods in Assam or Bihar.

Did posting about these calamities stop the floods? Or did the one's we lost in those brutal crimes come back to life?

The answer is no.

We posted to spread awareness around the subjects like Police brutality and animal cruelty .

That is exactly what "Challenge Accepted" is about, a successful initiative to spread awareness about how unfairly women are treated all around the world.

If you agree with the ideologies of this challenge then post a happy, sad, cute or sexy (literally anything) picture , not because everyone else is doing so but because that is something you believe in and it is your right, something nobody can take away from you. DO NOT BE APOLOGETIC FOR POSTING YOUR OWN PICTURE ON YOUR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT.