NEW DELHI • Hundreds of women in India have taken to social media to post selfies of themselves out at midnight with the hashtag #AintNoCinderella after a senior politician questioned why a woman, who was reportedly stalked, was out at night.
The 29-year-old woman, from the northern city of Chandigarh in Haryana state, said she was followed and almost kidnapped by two men who pursued her car as she drove home in the early hours of Saturday. The incident hit the headlines after the victim posted an account of her ordeal on her Facebook page.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said one of the men is the son of a prominent politician from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana. But while police arrested the politician's son and his friend, registered a complaint against them and released them on bail, the BJP's vice-chief in Haryana has blamed the victim for being out late - triggering a backlash on Twitter. "The girl should not have gone out at 12 in the night. Why was she driving so late in the night?" BJP state vice-president Ramveer Bhatti told a local television station on Monday.
Twitter was flooded with women posting pictures of themselves outside their homes at night, mocking Mr Bhatti for the remarks which they said were shaming victims instead of supporting them.
"If I'm out at 12 am, it DOES NOT mean I'm to be raped, molested, chased. My dignity is my right 24X7. #AintNoCinderella," tweeted Ms Sharmistha Mukherjee, a politician from the opposition Congress party, with a picture of her in the dark. "Dear regressive India, I will do as I please, night or day. Don't ever think you have the right to stop me #AintNoCinderella," wrote Twitter user queenpsays.
Indian women face challenges ranging from child marriage, dowry killings and human trafficking to rape and domestic violence, largely due to deep-rooted attitudes that view them as inferior to men.
There were 327,394 reports of violence against women such as rape, molestation, abduction and cruelty by husbands in 2015, up more than 40 per cent from 2011, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.
The gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012 led to protests, forcing the government to enact stiffer penalties for rape and criminalising stalking.
REUTERS
