‘Did she ask for it?’

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Pubali Ray Chaudhuri
Online Journal Associate Editor

Oct 1, 2010

The spectacle of women being assaulted in public is nothing new in India. So when the Hindutva “moral police” party Ram Sene, headed by Pramod Muthalik, sent some thugs to beat up women in a Mangalore pub, the whole incident might have blown over in a few days -- if it had not been for Nisha Susan.

Susan, a young journalist from Bangalore, started an online Facebook group called “A Consortium of Pubgoing Loose and Forward Women,” that urged members to send loads of pink chaddis (“chaddi” is Hindi for underpants) to Muthalik’s party office in Hubli as an ostensibly humorous, but really rather scathing, response to his attempt at moral policing. Susan’s group has since swelled to over 55,000 members from all over the globe, and its current activities are still available on Facebook.

The consortium’s Valentine’s Day campaign was a success, too, with hundreds of panties winging their subversive way to Ram Sene headquarters. However, post-Valentine’s Day in the cities of Mangalore and Bangalore, several women were attacked and threatened by strangers. Susan and fellow activists responded by launching a “Take Back the Night” event and other initiatives. And so the struggle continues. . . .

source link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6401.shtml


The Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Consortium-of-Pub-going-Loose-and-Forward-Women/54434846926