Ally Matthan and Anju Maudgal Kadam vowed to wear saris 100 times over the course of a year — their challenge was quickly taken up by other Indian women.
Two friends from the south Indian city of Bengaluru, Ally Matthan and Anju Maudal Kadam, love wearing saris. But they both agreed that they weren't wearing the flowing, colorful wrapped clothing nearly enough.
So Matthan and Kadam decided to do something — they decided to make a pact to wear saris — probably the most well-known example of women's clothing from South Asia — twice a week, instead of always wearing more Western clothing, like jeans.
"It started as a conversation between Ally and I," Anju Maudal Kadam says. "We wanted to bring out the saris from our closets — saris that we were wearing only for occasions and we wanted to bring them back into our every day dressing. Social media amplified that message for us. We put it up — more to hold ourselves accountable — and people joined in."
The pact between the two has caught on and now other young girls and women are wearing them.
They've been posting photos of themselves on social media using the hashtag #100SAREEPACT.
"The pact is more than wearing the sari," Kadam says. "The pact is about telling the story behind the sari or a story about yourself in the sari or how you’re feeling in the sari. The voices that are emerging are the voices of fabulous women of the past who have been path breakers. There are voices emerging of people saying ‘I stepped out in my sari today … and I feel like Superwoman.’”
Here are some examples posted to Twitter: