After a male politician suggested a victim who was chased to her car by two men should not have been out “so late in the night”, women across India have been posting pictures of them out after midnight with the hashtag ‘Aint No Cinderella’.
In a widely shared Facebook post, Varnika Kundu said that two men attempted to kidnap her as she walked back to her car late on Saturday night. When she got into the car, they beat the doors and tried to enter.
“They seemed to really be enjoying harassing a lone girl in the middle of the night, judging by how often their car swerved, just enough to scare me that it might hit me.” she wrote in the Facebook post.
“I was in a full-blown panic attack by now because they would keep trying to corner me, and I’d somehow manoeuvre my way out and keep moving. My hands shaking, my back spasming from fear, half in tears, half bewildered, because I didn’t know if I’d make it home tonight.”
Kundu carried on to say she felt lucky for “not lying raped and murdered in a ditch somewhere”.
The vice-president of the local Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), said this would not have happened if she had not been out too late.
“The girl should not have gone out at 12 in the night. Why was she driving so late in the night? The atmosphere is not right. We need to take care of ourselves.”
“Parents must take care of their children. They shouldn’t allow them to roam at night. Children should come home on time, why stay out at night?” said politician Ramveer Bhatti.
This queued the response by women over India sending defiant photos of themselves out late at night.
“I’m supposed to be wondering about what this is going to do to my image and my life. But what would those guys have done to my life if they had caught me?” said Kundu.
“What I do and where I go and at what time I do it is my business.”