The cover of a woman breastfeeding on Kerala magazine “Grihalakshmi” (File) The cover of a woman breastfeeding on Kerala magazine “Grihalakshmi” (File)

An advocate filed a case against Grihalakshmi on Friday, a week after the Kerala magazine featured a woman breastfeeding a child on its cover. Vinod Mathew has moved a local court in Kollam over the picture, reported news agency ANI. Featuring Gilu Joseph, the image, which strives to normalise breastfeeding in public, caused an uproar on social media last week.

The model, 27-year-old Gilu Joseph, however, said she has no regrets. Talking to IndianExpress.com, she said, “I have only done things that I have believed is right for me. I must have failed, but I have no regrets.” Read interview in Malayalam.

“Women should breastfeed freely, without any sense of fear or inhibition and that is my message in the article too, but people began criticising even without reading what I had to say,” Joseph said, reacting to the controversies around the shoot.

Also read | Malayalam model breastfeeds in an iconic, bold magazine cover shoot; garners mixed reactions on social media

Social media users were flooded with questions after the issue was released. ‘Why has the magazine given an unrealistic representation using a model with a child who is not even her own?’ ‘Why is Joseph wearing a vermilion paste on her forehead — a mark of subservience as seen by many — when she is breaking taboos surrounding breastfeeding by propagating body positivity?’ ‘Would mothers not breastfeed their children fearing being stared at?’ These are some of the comments made at the model.

Last week, the magazine also launched a campaign, “What’s shameful about breastfeeding in public?” supported by poets and writers across Kerala.

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