‘Keep quiet!’ is perhaps the most common word a woman hears since her childhood. At home among the family members or outside in the midst of strangers she is always supposed to be gentle and somber. We are relatively informed and educated today. We know what USP is, we know more than enough about LSD, we know who is called a voyeur or who is fetish and we write about gender discourse whenever we have time. Still, we feel that a woman’s dignity lies in silence.

Nope, she won’t make any noise, she won’t voice her desire neither she will share her annoyance. This is how a society promises a ‘good girl’ from a ‘respected background’ so that, she scores highest in matrimonial. It’s not her job to protect or protest. As her eloquence is in her silence she will always look up to the other sex when such things are required.

Be it an incident of child abuse or sexual harassment at work place when she is grown up, a female is always found tight lipped. Because a lesson learnt long before has become a habit today. Now her silence is more her preference than compulsion. She avoids throwing herself in another trouble by reacting, because an unusual manner would be more disgraceful for her integrity. So, it’s best to shut up.

‘It will create scene and nothing else! I can’t make them stop. It causes anxiety and nothing more.’ Says Satabdi Debnath, 26, working as a computer engineer in an MNC. A college student Moumita Dey, 19, answers vigorously as she is asked about objection, ‘what’s the point? I face atleast five teasers everyday’.

Here’s a gang of girls who speak off woman’s silence. A ‘Shaky Camera Production’ short film named “Silence” portrays a woman’s journey in a public transport. The interesting thing is the whole project is managed by a crew of woman who wanted to share their understanding on screen. The writer, director and editor Nupur Mathur took couple of minutes to tell you what a disgust a woman faces each day but remains quiet. Not only the focused woman but her female co-travelers too fail to help her in the mess. The story told in precise quickly zooms in her psyche to expose her distress caused by the harassment. The suppressed rage keeps her busy for the rest of the way. The good thing about the film is it won’t irritate you with cerebral camera angles or won’t confuse you with brainstorming editing. More exciting, it stays soundless as it verbalizes the story of a sufferer slated to muteness. You may take it as a silent demonstration by the ‘weaker sex’.