Doubly rewarded

Theater personality and activist Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and her son filmmaker and educator Dr Kaizaad Kotwal were both felicitated with the Karmaveer Puraskar Maharatna award in New Delhi on November 26, 2019. The duo received this award for their contribution to women’s empowerment and for their work towards combating violence against women and girls through their 11-year-old Make-A-Difference Foundation, Mahabanoo told Parsiana on December 10. The Foundation is dedicated to "helping abused women, across all strata... to find a way out of violence,” she detailed in an email. The Foundation works "with a variety of projects and programs in urban schools and colleges, alongside economically disenfranchised women in under privileged areas of Bombay,” Mahabanoo stated. The Foundation works with other nongovernmental organizations (NGO) to help victims of acid attacks and to provide legal aid to victims of violence, she told us.

Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal (l), and Dr Kaizaad Kotwal

The awards that have been promoted by REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship which is instituted by International Confederation of NGOs in partnership with the United Nations "emphasize quality education and sustainable development goals,” notes their website. "This is not an awards ceremony for celebrities and society people,” stated Mahabanoo. All awardees work at the grassroots level to "help those in the greatest need,” she averred.
The stage veteran, who has over 70 national and global credits for her work on the stage and screen told Parsiana that her and Kaizaad’s journey towards activism was a direct result of them producing and directing the stage show The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler (see "Kissa Kotwal ka,” Parsiana, March 21, 2008). Co-directed by the mother-son duo, Mahabanoo stars in the play, currently in its 17th year of showing within India. Vagina explores consensual and non consensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation and other related topics through the eyes of women from different cultures. With a Hindi version playing since 2007, Mahabanoo stated that the Gujarati version will be on stage in 2020. A fund-raiser for three charities in Atlanta, USA in August this year saw Mahabanoo direct 11 American women ("all non actors”) for the play.
Having won the Karmaveer Puraskar in 2011, Mahabanoo’s other accolades include being chosen by Femina magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in India in 2007 and Women of Wonder Award in 2018. Kaizaad, who holds a master’s degree in feminist and post-colonial theater from Wabash College, Indiana, USA, and a doctorate from Ohio State University in new media and technology in art, film and theater was recognized with a Karmaveer Chakra Award in 2012 and the Verghese Kurian Karmaveer Puraskar in 2014.