Read: This Manguluru Girl Writes A Facebook Post To The Person Who Was Harassing Her.
Almost one in ten women in India has faced sexual harassment in India, be it from a stranger on the road or someone who is known to the victim. Many have been followed, stalked, groped, catcalled and a lot of them have raised an alarm, hoping this does not happen to another woman. Yet not a day passes when something of this nature does not happen.
Rashmi Shetty, a 22-year old woman from Manguluru, was also leered at1 and this was not her first time. But this time, she did not give the perpetrator the satisfaction of having done the deed and going away. She mustered up courage and retaliated. Shetty wrote a scathing Facebook post, divulging the number plate of the guy’s scooter, which has since then gone viral.
“I could’ve let it go because he didn’t touch me or anything. But I didn’t want to because the past years of my life have been infested with these experiences,” said Shetty, who is pursuing MA in Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions in Bihar. “He has probably been reinforced in the past to have this kind of guts. So this time I decided to expose on such man on social media because I wanted to find out about him and teach him a lesson,” she said on being asked what prompted her to share her experience on social media.
She also posted the vehicle registration number and the vehicle pic on her facebook timeline
Read what she wrote below-
KA 19 EU 0932 You thought I’d be scared, didn’t you? You thought I’d be ashamed, didn’t you? I was followed by the guy who this scooter belongs to today in broad daylight. In a busy street in Mangalore. 3 pm in the noon in the centre of the city, from Aloysius Degree College to Balmatta, to a guy dares to follow a woman who’s walking while there is a swarm of cops thirty steps behind. You think you can halt a million times ahead of me and honk at me while I cross you as you take a good fucking look at my butt? And that would embarrass me enough to cry at my fate of being a woman in this country, this generation, this world? You think I’d freak out and run so fast that I fucking run into your arms? You think you stopping and making phone calls to your gang would threaten me into never getting out alone? So confident that if I asked for help if never be able to prove your fault? And that people wouldn’t take my side or take me seriously? Well, guess what? I take my side. These streets are as much mine as they are of undeserving assholes like you. You or a hundred like you will not scare me into staying home and not being free. This is a message from all the strong girls to you and your likes: if you try curtailing our freedom, we will fight back. And we will knock you down. I was only waiting for you to make a move so I can smack your face with my heels- the same ones you were trying so hard to catch up with. And you think you can do anything under the veil of anonymity? Here, I’m not anonymous anymore. And I won’t let you be either. And let me repeat, I’M NOT SCARED OF YOU. I hope this reaches you somehow. You thought I’d be scared, didn’t you? You thought I’d be ashamed, didn’t you? You’re the one who should be both. And yeah, F**K YOU.
We salute this woman for being brave and opening up about this incident!!
Bt: Anamika Bhaumik