Indian woman calls for rape of girls in 'short' dresses in viral video

Twitter has been ablaze with posts condemning her comments

KARACHI: It’s sad but not-so-surprising to witness an Indian woman calling for the rape of girls at a shopping center in Gurgugram. Their crime? Wearing ‘short’ dresses.

The video of the woman verbally attacking a group of girls has gone viral after she asked some men sitting at a restaurant to rape them because she did not approve of their clothing. The girls confronted the disgruntled women though, demanding an apology and threatening to post the video on social media. But instead, the woman asked the girls' parents to “control” them.

ਮਾਂਤਾ ਜੀ ਬੱਸ ਕਰੋ
ਆਪਦੇ ਲਾਡਲੇ ਪੁੱਤਾ ਨੂੰ ਦੱਸੋ ਕੇ ਉਹ ਸਮਾਜ ਵਿੱਚ ਕਿਵੇ ਵਿੱਚਰਣ
plz teach your sons that how to behave in the society don’t tell girls what they need to wear
by the way we have cases where our daughters got rapped in nappies
so plz...#Gurgaon #girls #rape #delhi #india pic.twitter.com/PUUYKcXIgr

— dev INDER SINGH (@dsinghmauli) May 1, 2019

“This middle aged woman you’ll see in the video addressed seven men at the restaurant to rape us because she felt we deserved it for wearing short clothes and bashing her unsolicited opinion,” wrote Shivani Gupta, who uploaded the video on Facebook after the incident.

“We gave her the chance to apologise, to no avail, of course. Nothing moved the needle for her, not even another woman who learned the story on the spot and implored this ghastly woman to apologise.”

An uproar of Twitter posts have followed the video, which has received over one million views since April 30. One Twitter user wrote, “While we are calling for the death penalty of rapists in India, we have women saying other women should be raped because of the length of a girl's skirt.”

Such a shame. Here we are asking for death penalty for rapist's in India and on the other hand we have women saying women should be taped because of the length of a girls skirt. An elderly woman who is also a mother, women like her raise men to be rapists. @ndtv pic.twitter.com/QgTc8iw5Pl

— Andieeeeee (@Andieeeeee3) May 1, 2019

Another female user tweeted, “I wish people could leave their conservative thoughts behind.”

3 year old raped!
Was she returning late night?
Was she wearing a short skirt?
Was she in tight jeans?

If one law India should adapt from Saudi Arabia, that should be the way they punish rapists & drug peddlers. https://t.co/UVRuqN4TTE

— Purva Agarwala #JaiKisan (@feignism) May 5, 2018

Meanwhile, some male tweeters were also quick to condemn the incident.

A bystander’s daughter also took to Facebook, telling viewers to excuse her mother’s language after she stuck up for the girls saying "Aunty, aapka kurta bada tight hain."

PHOTO: INDIA TODAY

It’s disconcerting that still, in 2019, women’s clothing are the reasons for men raping them. In a time when women the world over are breaking boundaries around the world, how can they not support each other, especially when it comes to an abhorrent act like rape?

Besides, clothing choices cannot stop a rapist from raping someone. Have we forgotten the macabre rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim nomadic girl in Indian-occupied Kashmir?

How will justice for women prevail when women themselves are perpetuating the idea that it is okay for men to rape them if they were relatively revealing clothes? We can only hope these kind of mentalities start to change.

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.