Women in India are standing up against victim-shaming by posting selfies at midnight and tagging #AintNoCinderella.
The online movement was sparked after a comment from a senior politician who questioned why a woman who had reportedly been stalked was out at night in the first place, as reported by Indian news outlet ABP Live.
The 29-year-old victim reported that she was followed and almost kidnapped by two men who chased her in a car while she drove home in the early hours of the morning.
The woman alleged that one of the men is the son of a high-up politician in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The man and his friend was arrested and then released on bail, but when the BJP’s state vice president Ramveer Bhatti was questioned about the incident by a local TV station, he reportedly retorted, “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 should take care of their daughters. They should not be allowed to roam out of the house late in the night. They should come back home on time,” he continued.
Umm. What?
This comment copped massive backlash on social media, and thus, the #AintNoCinderella hashtag was born. Women began posting pictures of themselves out at night, condemning Bhatti’s remarks.
“No one tells me what to wear, what to eat, when to go out and how to dress. Keep your regressive mindset to yourself,” one woman wrote.
“Dear Regressive India,” another wrote. “We ain’t damsels in distress. We are independent and we don’t need you to curb our freedom.”
With violence against women being such a staggering issue in India, it’s important to have these movements where women stand up, band together and fight against these sexist attitudes. They won’t be put into a corner where their lives are dictated by other people. #AintNoCinderella here!
