Shropshire Star

#AintNoCinderella: Why women in India are posting selfies at night to fight victim blaming

We speak to three women about standing up for their right to be out as late as they want.

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Women taking selfies in India using the hashtag #AintNoCinderella.

Female Twitter users across India are calling out politicians by posting pictures of themselves out at night with the hashtag #AintNoCinderella.

The social media trend comes after a 29-year-old woman said she was followed and “almost kidnapped” by two men in the northern city of Chandigarh in Haryana. In a Facebook Post, Varnika Kundu claims a car pulled up alongside her while she was driving and the men “incessantly bullied” her for 6km.

“There were 2 guys inside the SUV, and they seemed to really be enjoying harassing a lone girl in the middle of the night,” she posted.

After her Facebook post, it was the response of Vice President Ramveer Bhatti of the Bharatiya Janata Party that sparked outrage.

“The girl should not have gone out at 12 in the night,” he told local television station CNN-News18. “Why was she driving so late in the night?”

Unsurprisingly many people see his comment as victim blaming and women have responded by posting selfies on Twitter to prove they have every right to be out at night, without fearing for their safety.

Three of those women tell us their reasons for joining in with the #AintNoCinderella hashtag.

“I’m tired of girls being blamed for the rapes and sexual harassment that goes on in India.” – Pooja Rathan

Pooja Rathan, from Bangalore, believes women posting selfies of them enjoying themselves out at night is a way for them to show their independence.

“Blaming the victim for dressing a certain way or being out past a certain hour as the reason for these horrible acts is not justified and needs to stop,” she said.

“I think posting a picture with the hashtag #AintNoCinderella is a way for women to share their independence and to show people that they aren’t helpless victims.

“We’re strong women with good values and we need to be respected anytime of day or night, just as much as men.”

“We aren’t afraid to strike back.” – Surekha Rao

“No matter what time of the day it is, I am definitely not ‘asking for it’,” says Surekha Rao, from Bombay, when asked about attitudes towards women in India. “Neither are thousands of women across the country.”

Rao believes there is no better way to show women want change than the #AintNoCinderella campaign.

She said: “In a bid to reclaim our public spaces and show that we aren’t afraid to strike back, what’s a better way to say it than with visual presentation? It sends a stronger message.

“I am tired of authorities and other people time and again blaming me for simply being a woman. We are all tired. So, we better change that and hopefully, it will knock some sense into people who think otherwise.”

“It’s high time we focused on the real issues.” – Rekha Navani

India will soon be celebrating 70 years of its independence, and Rekha Navani, from Mumbai, says she is exasperated that there are much bigger issues to sort in her country than what women wear or what time they get home.

“The real issues of providing basic infrastructure, making India safe for all its citizen, preventing crime by stricter laws and faster legal processes gets lost while women become an easy target to be blamed upon,” said Navani.

“By posting the selfie, I wanted to just create awareness of how we women are tired and exasperated of people dictating terms on what we should wear, how we should speak and at what time we should be back home.”

Many other women have joined in with supporting the hashtag by posting not just pictures, but their thoughts and feelings on the topic too

Hundreds of women posted photographs on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at midnight, refusing to be intimidated, and more have joined the campaign since.

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