An open letter to all women who fought back their molesters and shattered the silence.
Yesterday, I received a call from one of my interns, she told me how she fought back her molesters a few days back. The teenager was coming back from her college when two men tried to molest her. Without anyone's help, the 19-year-old showed courage, fought back her molester and managed to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.
She was traveling in a local train of which the whole compartment was empty when suddenly two men took the advantage of the situation & tried to grope & pin her down. Though she was forcefully embraced by them, she struggled with all her might & didn’t lose her presence of mind. Firstly she shouted at top of her voice for help, kept shouting but as the compartment was empty no one was there to help her, Then she scratched the molester with her umbrella because she knew she can not let them pin her down, so she injured and hit them with her hand bag and umbrella with all force. She kept hitting them and slapping them left and right in a moving train until she saw a station.You see, anger brings out the strength you never thought you had in you. As soon as a station arrived she kicked one of them with all her might at his private part and ran for help.
She showed sheer courage, instead of getting scared, the brave girl shouted at the top of her voice on reaching the station, hearing which many nearby people rushed to her for help. Thanks to her presence of mind she managed to fight with two men who tried to molest her. She single-handedly fought against them, leaving them wounded and hurt in the end.
She further went on to explain how her friends have outcasted her from the group after this shaming her instead for what happened. They told her what all she could do and tried to be her well wishers. After hearing this I felt the blood rush to my head, boiling and fuming & anger ran through every nerve in my body. Within that fraction of a second all eve teasing incidents I have read about or heard about flashed in my mind. Being a girl I went numb fearing how difficult it can be for girls who go through such situations. How can a girl shame another girl for the ordeal on which no one has control on? How can we fail to understand the pain & anger of the person going through the trauma? How as the society are we failing where survivors are living a life of worries and culprits are sleeping peacefully.
Do you really think in a situation like this you have any control on? You do what best you can to save yourself from that situation, so how as the society can we dictate what a person should have done instead? Instead of applauding for her brave act, her friends went on to outcast her from their group, are we going a level down in terms of humanity? Do we still need reasons to blame survivors instead of offenders? I think the answer lies within us. Unless women put forward that it is not okay for someone to touch us & get away with it, nothing will change. Until we as a community don’t come forward to support the survivors instead of blaming, bashing them we can not move forward.
When someone gets molested they can just bite the bullet and accept that they were teased or molested or they can raise their voice and instil fear in the criminal instead of victimising themselves. If such man has the guts to do something to a girl, he probably started off by doing something less offensive to another girl. Her silence was his encouragement. Remember, every time you choose to ignore or walk away, you put someone else’s life in danger.
I hope it’s a lesson for all girls to fight back in the case of such acts.
We often hear about eve teasing, but what makes stories like these different is the immense courage shown by girls who refuse to be called a “victim”. Thanks to their brave act! This is a shout out for all those who have faced similar incidents – being silent is not the answer. Speak up and save others from going through the same.
I urge women to respect their body and know that it’s okay for you to say that someone touched you without your consent and you have to muster the courage to reach out to the police. I insist. Please, for the sake of womanhood – SPEAK UP!
