Her family wanted her married. She went to Antarctic instead
What's the story
Meena Rajput, a 37-year-old British-Indian woman, is on her way back from a three-month expedition in the Antarctic, documenting its unique wildlife to create earth's largest protected area, an ocean sanctuary.
The daughter of a traditional Indian family living in the English town of Leighton Buzzard, she was expected to get married and raise a family. However, she chose to save Antarctica instead.
Family expectations
The sustained pressure to settle down
"I had the pressure to conform and be the good Indian girl, which is what we are known to be. My parents had the pressure to establish themselves in the British-Indian community," she told the BBC.
"They want you to have a family and make chapatis. I am not going to do just that. There's so much more to do," she added.
Details
Journeying to the end of the earth
Meena is one of the eight women sailing the Antarctic as part of Greenpeace's mission to conduct research and highlight the immediate need to create a 1.8 million square kilometre Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary to protect endangered species.
Their work included seafloor submarine dives, identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems, sampling for plastic pollution and exposing the dangers of krill fishing industry going deeper into the Antarctic.
Her work
Trained in climbing, Meena is now exploring earth's remotest continent
She joined Greenpeace four years ago. As part of their climb team, Meena is trained to scale buildings, objects and whatever else needed to carry out protests.
It's her first time on a Greenpeace ship. She was the team's deckhand, exploring the pristine environment of Antarctic's Paradise Bay.
Now she can also weld, slice ropes and survive one of the harshest environments on earth.
Information
She was arrested for climbing a tower to protest
Meena has been arrested for climbing a tower in an English port to protest against the import of diesel cars. Though Greenpeace's methods are widely criticized, Meena thinks they are worth it. "You have to make some noise and I am prepared to do that."
Looking ahead
'If you don't overstep the mark, no one will listen'
Armed with research, Greenpeace aims to convince the Antarctic Commission in October 2018 on why expanding industrial fishing into the ocean could be devastating and lobby into creating the sanctuary.
As for Meena, her relatives no longer push her to get married. Instead they are curious about her expedition. Her mum, meanwhile, wants her to return with a partner, even if it's a penguin.