Malayalam teacher Lisa Pulparambil, 41, had long endured “disapproving glares” from her women colleagues at a Kerala girls’ school because she would come to work wearing jeans and long pants with tops or kurtas.

But when a male colleague asked during a recent phone conversation what she would wear on November 1 — the day schools reopened after the Covid break — and cautioned her about discontent at her dressing style, she decided it was time to take a break from wearing jeans.

So, on Monday, Lisa turned up at school in a mundu and a shirt — traditional male clothing in Kerala that is, unlike jeans and trousers, hardly fashionable even among progressive women.

“I wanted to exert my rights and make a gender statement,” Lisa told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

November 1 also happens to be Kerala Piravi day (formation day), when many Malayalis, including office-goers and college students, wear traditional clothes.

The Government Moyan Model Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Palakkad, where Lisa teaches, has no dress code. That her attire on Monday still generated enough traction on social media — spawning both support and criticism — testifies to her grouse that gender-neutral dressing is still anathema to many in “progressive” Kerala.

Lisa Pulparambil in mundu and shirt, the traditional clothing of males in Kerala. Telegraph photo

When the male teacher had warned her a day before the school reopening, “I told him my clothing was my choice and I was entitled to wear anything in school as long as it was decent,” Lisa, an author of two books on feminism, said.

Still, on November 1, she faced “glares and smirks” from fellow teachers, mostly women.

But when her pupils realised that a controversy had broken out, many of them sent her messages of support on WhatsApp after class, Lisa said. “I felt so happy.”

“Shirts and mundus too suit women, not just silk saris and jasmine flowers,” a student wrote.

“Saris and churidars are the usual attire of teachers. But these ideas, cast in concrete, must be demolished,” messaged another.

Since Monday, Lisa has been coming to school in her usual jeans or trousers.

A mother of two girls — first-year higher secondary student Amelia and four-year-old Thanmaya — Lisa is married to Pradeep Thaikkattil who works for a private company. She joined the Palakkad school in 2018 after teaching for several years at a government school in her native Kozhikode.

“I have nothing against the sari but have always worn long kurtas and long pants or jeans to school because I’m more comfortable in them. I switched to short tops and jeans and long pants after I donated my hair for cancer patients about two months ago,” she said.

A woman colleague once advised her to wear a shawl over her kurta, “but I refused since it’s my right to wear what I want”, Lisa said.

She added: “I would like boys and girls to wear similar clothing as their school uniform. That’s my gender perspective, based entirely on equality.”

Several men have commented on Lisa’s Facebook page.

“There may be freedom to wear what one wants, (but) uniformity of everything is not possible in the name of equality. That is the law of nature,” wrote Krishna Kumar Kavassery VishwanathaIyer.

Abdul Salam posted: “Men and women must have different attires.”

Lisa said: “I feel ashamed that this kind of talk is happening even now. Please remember, this is happening in a city like Palakkad.”

She cited how a male professor at a college in Ernakulam had three years ago told his students that women who wore jeans and shirts gave birth to transgender children.

The professor had also claimed that parents who were not of “good character” gave birth to children suffering from autism or cerebral palsy.

Several men have, however, backed Lisa. “The best possible role model for children. Big salute,” K.S. Ratheesh wrote on her Facebook page.