‘Our Body, Our Choice’: The Girls Behind The Viral Video Speak Up

How could a woman of my mother's age even think of wishing rape incident happen to a much younger girl? All of us fumed today after watching that viral video in which a group of young women confronted a middle-aged woman who allegedly asked men at a restaurant to rape a group of women because one of them was wearing revealing skirt. This was in Gurgaon. "She asked for it." Really! Is slut shaming still a thing?

A Delhi-based girl, Shivani Gupta, posted a Facebook update saying, "Today my friends and I were harassed by a woman at a restaurant for me wearing a short dress. 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. For speaking up against her primitive mindset. Our instinct was turn away from the drama but supported by our colleagues, we took her on at a shopping centre, nearby. 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 the ghastly woman to apologise."

The Quint reached out to Shivani and her friends and here's their perspective. This is how the whole verbal spat went down in a Gurugram mall. The lady is apparently a teacher and a mother of a son.

Aditi, (Shivani’s friend), "All of us were enjoying some snacks time when the woman motioned us to go and talk to her. Her tone was not very respectful and upon confrontation she told me that this chat was about my dress. We tried to avoid the whole situation but she continued to give her unwanted opinion anyway. In her unsolicited opinion, ideally I shouldn't be wearing such revealing dress which could provoke a man. In a blatantly misogynistic way she asked me if I am not ashamed that my legs are showing."

Hearing such comments, Aditi expressed shocked for a minute there but then she told the lady that "I am very fond of showing my legs because how else would you find a situation like this to tackle right? We found the situation very funny, laughed it off since criticizing someone's dress is still a big issue in this country and people are being attacked openly for that. That's the moment when it offended her."

READ: Delhi Woman Asks Men To Rape Women In Short Dresses. Next? The Internet Took Over.

"She blamed me that it is because of a woman like me other women get raped. That was a huge insult we couldn't bear and we started moving out slowly. In the next moment we saw her talking to some guys directly addressing to us and telling them to rape us. You should rape all three of them she told them. We were uncomfortable but still confronted her to which the obnoxious lady shouted at us saying I wish you all get raped tonight," she continued in the interview.

“People should know, they need to know, that the length of your dress, whatever dress - be it shorts, tights, crop tops...be it anything…it doesn’t give a man the right to touch us, to rape us. Our body is our body,” Aditi, (Shivani’s friend) told The Quint

Also Read: Delhi Woman Asks Men To Rape Women In Short Dresses. Next? The Internet Took Over.

"We really want to thank the people who are supporting us. We failed to educate this lady that the rape culture she is promoting is not helping anyone, in anyway," all of Shivani’s friend said in the video.